The Secret Twitter Code: What are all those initials and symbols?
Posted on: July 2, 2009Author: Cali Lewis
28 comments so far
12 Days of Twitter :: Day 1
(learn more about the 12 days of Twitter)
Twitter can be overwhelming to understand. When you get past the question Why would I want to use Twitter, there are still a lot of Twitter-specific abbreviations (some borrowed from the web, chat and SMS) that confuse people when they jump into the world of Twitter.
Twitter Terms
tweet = A single message on Twitter, up to 140 characters
@reply = a response to a specific person – If you want to send a message that you know I’ll see, you put @calilewis anywhere in your 140 character message and I’ll see it. It’s a public message, just like your regular tweets that anyone following you will see, but it addresses a specific person. I can then reply back by @replying you or sending you a DM.
DM = Direct Message – This is how you talk to specific people privately. Unlike an @reply, no one will see a DM but you and the person you send it to. To avoid spam, you are only able to send a Direct Message to someone who is already following you. To send someone a DM, you can type D username (remember the space) at the beginning of your message. There is a Direct Messages link on the right side of the Twitter pages. If you don’t click that link, you won’t see when people have DM’d you.
RT = Retweet – It’s a way of quoting someone else of Twitter. You like what they said, and you want to pass it on.
On the Web, you’ll need to manually copy and paste someone’s tweet and put “RT username” in front
On a Desktop Application, usually you can hover over a user’s picture and find a symbol, like the straight arrow in this screenshot:
# = Hashtag – A hastag is a single keyword with the # sign in front. It tells the world that this tweet is about a particular subject or event. It allows people to follow a subject easily.
Borrowed from Chat/SMS
Here are some common abbreviations borrowed from SMS, Chat and the Web that I see on Twitter quite often. This is just a short list of possible abbreviations. For a more exhaustive list, click here.
L8R = Later
<3 = Love (it’s a sideways heart…just stare at it for a moment!)
BRB = Be Right Back
FWIW = For What It’s Worth
IDK = I Don’t Know
PPL = People
TTYL = Talk To You Later
WDYK = What Do You Know
Borrowed from the Web
NSFW = Not Safe For Work
IMHO = In My Humble Opinion
WYSIWYG = What You See Is What You Get
WTF = What The *beep*
TMI = Too Much Information
ROTFL = Roll On The Floor Laughing
I’ll be talking about TweetDeck on the next post.
Read More
Introduction to the 12 Days of Twitter
Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations
Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny
Day 4: Follow Responsibly
Day 5: 3 Newbie Mistakes Made by New Tweeters
Day 6: Use Twitter Search to Connect and Find
Day 7: Twitter Mobile
Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter
Day 9: Mix it Up!
Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic
Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit
Day 12: Schedule Tweets in Advance
« 12 Days of Twitter
Twitter Porn and Spam? »
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Twitter recently changed how @replies are treated. They are not visible by ANYONE who follows you. They are visible by the person to whom the @reply was directed (obviously), and to people who follow BOTH you and person to whom the @reply was directed.
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:55 pm
It’s worth noting that an account can be configured to send received DMs to your email address. This is very handy if you don’t want to be checking your DMs page (or app-based equivalent) all the time, but if you expect to get a LOT of DMs, it could choke your inbox.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Why not just use ROFL instead of ROTFL (its sorter)?
just FYI (that was also left out) 
But thanks this would be nice to pass along to friends and family who don’t understand the web or Twitter that much.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Thanks Cali!
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:37 pm
And the same informations, in french and on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nomducompte
::
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:43 am
This series is an awesome idea, Cali. Now, if I could only force my friends and family to read it. I’ll do my best.
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:25 am
[...] Day 1: The Secret Twitter Code Previous Post« Look! Hayden Panettiere has a Kindle Next PostThe Secret Twitter Code: What [...]
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:08 am
Nice Idea, thanks a lot Cali !!!
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:54 am
For the longest time I thought <3 was supposed to be a bum – like kiss my a** or something like that. Then I thought it was lips. But now I know!
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:46 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Previous Post« Twitter Porn and Spam? Next [...]
July 4th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Previous Post« Use TweetDeck to Manage [...]
July 6th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
So very helpful! Thank you!!!!! Question, do ALL of these go in the very beggining of your post on Twitter?
July 6th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
[...] 3) Follow no more than a couple hundred people It’s very difficult to actually pay attention to more than a couple hundred people at a time on Twitter. A river of correspondence is one thing. Trying to keep up with more than a couple hundred people turns the information overload from a river into a tsunami. The good news is that you don’t have to follow someone to have a conversation with them. It’s possible to continue having conversations with other Twitter users, without following each of them because of Replies/Mentions, Direct Messages, and Twitter Search. [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 7:51 am
@Replies and Retweets can go anywhere in the message. DMs need the “D username” at the very beginning of the message.
July 7th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re [...]
July 8th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re [...]
July 9th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re [...]
July 9th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re [...]
July 10th, 2009 at 2:32 am
[...] in blog on Jul.10, 2009 A blog post this week from over @ Cali Lewis’ blog inspired me. She is doing this series on Twitter and in one post, divulved some of the typical [...]
July 10th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re [...]
July 10th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
What Joe mentioned is partially true. Twitter indeed changed the way @replies show on your tweets list (only if you also follow the @recipient), but they are still public and visible when you access the @sender Timeline.
July 12th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 5:55 am
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re [...]
July 14th, 2009 at 6:09 am
[...] to the 12 Days of Twitter Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols? Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re [...]
July 30th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Want to thank you for all this info and “how to” examples for twitter. I’m kinda getting the hang of it but it sure was very confusing when I 1st started. May very well d/l and install tweetdeck as my follow/followers list grow. I can see how that would help keep everything organized. I’ve been really getting lost at times as to keeping track of who sent what when. Enjoy your GBTV videos and informative site. Thanks, Cali.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Hi Cali, I wanted to ask a question about tweeting etiquette! Is it perfectly ok to retweet someone elses tweet? I read all sorts of interesting things and think it would be cool to pass it on to my little band of followers. Should I add my own comments at the end of a RT? Thanks so much for your 12 days of Twitter, it was hugely helpful to a novice twitter like myself.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Great question! It’s absolutely okay to retweet someone. Not only is it okay, they’ll appreciate it.
That’s really the whole idea of it…passing along great information or funny stories, etc.
It’s totally up to you whether you add a comment with a RT. It can get confusing about where the RT ends and your comment begins, so I suggest putting the RT in quotes if you’re going to add a comment from you.
Hope that helps! I’ll make this the subject of a post soon.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Thank you. That has really helped, I look forward to reading your post on the subject soon.