Whenever I go home for holidays, people always want to know what I’m doing with my life–obviously Social Media and eventually Twitter come up in conversation shortly thereafter. It wasn’t until finishing my Christmas dinner, I realized over 90% of my family had no idea what a hashtag was. As a budding social media expert and member of their family, I had failed them. Time after time while I was home, people were saying, “I just don’t understand that Twitter thing,” or “what’s a tweet?”
Obviously I knew my next blog post had to be something to help the common population get acclimated with my favorite Social Media channel: Twitter. Understanding every slang term and abbreviating in the twitter-sphere (and heck, even facebook statuses and text messages too!) can be a huge barrier to joining the social media stream. In the spirit of my earlier post, The Demise of the English Language in 140 characters or less, I included not only common Twitter abbreviations but commonly seen abbreviations.
As most already know, the Twitter-sphere is essentially a stream of updates or Tweets that are in 140 characters (or less). You can “follow” (and become a “follower”) brands, people, companies, sporting teams, neighbors,
communities, etc. All of these people will become part of your Twitter Feed. For more info, visit here.
This blog will hopefully serve as a refresher for some, and a guide (for my personal satisfaction) for people who may be thinking, “wtf am I supposed to do with Twitter?”
B4- Before
b/c, bc- Because
BRB – Be Right Back
BTW – By The Way
DM- Direct message, a private message or “direct message” to a person you follow.
EM or EML- Email
Fab- Fabulous
FB- Facebook
FF- Follow Friday(#followfriday) A Twitter “endorsement” Tweeted show the user’s favorite people on twitter.
Followers- Twitter Members that follow user updates
F2F (and while we’re at it, B2B, B2C): face to face, Business to business, Business to Client (Business to Community)
FYI- For Your Information
Gr8- Great
GTG, G2G- Got To Go
Hashtag #: A way of organizing your updates for Twitter search engine & to enable others to discover relevant posts.
For example, here are some of the worlds favourite hashtags from 2011:
- #egypt
- #tigerblood
- #threewordstoliveby
- #idontunderstandwhy
- #japan
- #improudtosay
- #superbowl
- #jan25
- #thingslongerthankimsmarriage
- #thankyousteve
- #prayforjapan
- #winning
- #inthe90s
- #rw2011
- #theawkwardmoment
- #11/11/11
HT - Hat Tip, or “Heard Through” instead of a classic “RT”
HTH - Here to Help or “Happy” To Help
IC – I See
IDC- I don’t care
IDK- I don’t know
IM- Instant Message
JK or J/K- Just Kidding (or for UK people, Joking)
L8- Late
LI- LinkedIn
LMAO- Laughing My A** Off
LMK- Let Me Know
LOL- Laughing Out Loud– not “lots of love” like my mother thinks it is.
MT – Modified Tweet
NSFW- Not Safe For Work
OH- Overheard
OMG- Oh My God
OMW – On My Way
ORLY- Oh Really?!!
ROFL- Rolling On The Floor Laughing
@reply: a Twitter update (a tweet) that is directed to another user within their tweet.
RT- ReTweet
SMH- Shaking My Head
Thx or Tx- Thanks
TMI- Too Much Information
Trend- A topic “Trending” or “popular” right now on Twitter
TTYL- Talk To You Later
TTYS- Talk To You Soon
TY- Thank You
YT- YouTube
Twitter is an amazing thing. I mean, it is a platform for social change, advertising, communications, brand identity, and etc. Join the stream– and of course, follow me @trishbaden!
References: http://www.webopedia.com http://www.harley.com/abbreviations/index.html#D http://twictionary.pbworks.com
~Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yamagatacamille
