The Basics on Effectively Using Twitter!!

"To participate in any community, first you need to know the langage. And we can all be thankful that there are only a handful of 'insider' terms you need to know in order to be a functioning member of the Twitter community."

-DM: Direct Message
A DM allows you to directly communicate with someone else where no one else will see the conversation but the two of you.

-the @ symbol
Including this symbol before a Twitter ID allows you to "mention" someone where it shows up directly to them. (for example @guyreel)

-Tweet: As a verb it means sending a message on Twitter; as a noun it means the message sent or received.

-RT: Retweet, meaning copying someone else's tweet and posting it so your followers can see it, too

-TL: the space where the tweets of all your followers are located

-Hashtag: A common label for any tweet that should be tied together with others' tweets, preceded by a # symbol; especially effective for a news event or a conference (for example, #MCOM226) this hashtag allows easy access to find all tweets related to this subject when inserted into the search box.

-There are four main things you can do on Twitter:
    1. post a message: It's easy,but there's a 140- character limit.
    2. read other people's messages:It's easy, too, since the messages of the people you follow automatically display
    3. reply to other people's messages: If you want to reply to someone, simply add the "@"
    4. send and receive direct messages: click "Direct Messages" and select from the drop-down menu the person you wish to communicate with. That person will receive an e-mail notification regardin the receipt of a direct message, and the message is not public.

**Find a group of people to follow.
-Go to search.twitter.com and search for terms you are interested in. When you find a post that looks interesting, you should add him or her to your feed.
-Now posts from those people will appear on your Twitter. When someone reposts another post, follow it and you'll probably find someone else new to follow. Following just a few new people everyday will quickly increase your followers.


**HAPPY TWEETINGG!!**
Cited: Briggs, Mark. Journalism Next. Washington: CQ Press, 2010. Print.