Social Media Glossary
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Terms
@username: A reference to a Twitter user.* This format is used for mentioning or replying to other users (for example, @username, @cuckoografik).
avatar: The user icon associated with a Twitter account.*
blogosphere: is made up of all blogs and their interconnections.
celebritweet: A celebrity or famous person who uses Twitter.*
curate: To create and maintain a list of Twitter users.*
direct message: A private note that only the recipient can read.*
fail whale: The page that Twitter displays when it is over capacity and can’t accept any more tweets.*
favorite: To save a tweet for later viewing; a tweet saved to your favorites timeline.*
follow: To connect with a Twitter user to see that person’s updates in your friend timeline.*
followers: Users may subscribe to other author tweets. These subscribers are known as followers.
friend timeline: The list of tweet posts by the people you know.*
hashtag: Type of tweet. Users can group posts together by topic or type by using words or phrases prefixed with a - # - (example, #movies). This is like using descriptive tags or keywords in a blog.
Hootsuite: An application that allows you to pre-program your tweets.
list: A list of followers categorised by subject.
live-tweeting: Sending on-the-fly updates that describe or summarize some ongoing event.*
mashup: Information created by combining data from two or more different sources.*
mention: An update that includes a tweeter’s @username, @cuckoografik.
microblogging: is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog’s content is typically much smaller than a traditional blog because of the constraint of 140 characters. An entry could consist of nothing but a short sentence fragment, an image or URL.
mutual follow: When two people on Twitter follow each other.*
oversharing: Sending too many tweets in a short period of time; posting tweets that include overly personal or trivial details of one’s life.*
reply: A response to a tweeter’s update.*
retweet: Another person’s tweet that you copy and send out to your follower, along with an acknowledgment of the original tweeter.
RT: An abbreviation used to mark an update as a retweet.* (Example: RT@username, RT@wordoftheday)
Timeline: A related collection of tweets, sorted by the date and time they were posted.*
Twitter: While other leading social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn have their own microblogging feature, better known as status updates, Twitter is the simplest social network with its 140-character tweet.
All users can send and receive tweets via
- the Twitter website,
- compatible external applications (such as smartphones or blogs),
- or by Short Message Service (SMS)
tweet: An update posted to Twitter.* Twitter enables its users to send and read other users' messages called tweets, which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page. The messages were initially set to 140-character limit for compatibility with SMS messaging.
tweet cred: Twitter credibility.*
Tweetdeck: An application that enables the following of several Twitter lists or accounts at the same time.
tweeter: A person who uses Twitter.*
tweetup: A real-world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service.*
Twitosphere: The Twitter social networking service and the people who use it.*
Twittaholic: A person who uses Twitter compulsively.*
Twitterati: The Twitter users with the most followers and influence.*
Twitterer: A person who uses Twitter.*
Twitticism: A witty tweet.*
Twittiquette: Twitter etiquette; an informal set of guidelines and suggestions for updating, following, replying, and sending direct messages.
twoosh: A tweet that is exactly 140 characters long.
unfollow: To stop following a Twitter user.*
Short Message Service (SMS): Standardized communications protocols allows for the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices. SMS is the text communication service component of phone, web or mobile communication systems that is limited to 160 characters. Twitter uses the SMS protocol to send out its updates. Since a Twitter username can be up to 15 characters long, Twitter chose 140 characters a the limit for a Twitter update.
social network: A social network service focuses on building and reflecting of social networks among people who share interests and/or activities. Most social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Popular social network services in North America: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn.
URL-shortening service: A Web site or program that converts a Web address into a much shorter URL and then uses that URL to redirect users to the original address.*
Examples:
http://bit.ly/
http://moourl.com/
http://tinyurl.com
http:/surl.com
Web 2.0: Web 2.0 is not necessarily a new version of the web but rather a new way of designing and interacting with the web with an emphasis on dynamic open content. That is, instead of passively consuming static online content, everyone can become a publisher or distributor of dynamic content through web applications that facilitate sharing and collaboration. Examples of Web 2.0 are social-networking sites (Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, GoogleMaps, Picasa, Flikr, etc.), wikis and blogs (Blogger, Wordpress, Twitter).
* McFedries, Paul (2010). Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets, 2nd Edition, Wiley Publishing, Inc.
