In the first part of this publication, we explained what Twitter was , what it consisted of and how to sign up for this social network, one of the most used in the world. In this second article, we will detail which are the main concepts and the most relevant characteristics that have to be mastered if you want to manage the bird network efficiently.
We will start with Twitter keywords, a series of essential concepts to navigate through it and interact with other users.
– Username : It is the name that identifies us on Twitter. It is always preceded by the ” @” sign .
– Tweet : It is each of the short messages (maximum 140 characters) that users send through Twitter. These messages are public. There are several types of tweets (mentions, responses and retweets ), which we will explain later. In tweets , in addition to our text, we can put links to other pages and incorporate images that illustrate what is said.
– Timeline : It is the board of the main page, the timeline in which the tweets that we make and the tweets of the users that we follow appear, in order of publication.
– Following ( Following ): In the “Following” section we will find the list of users we are following. When any of them writes a tweet , it will automatically appear on the timeline , that is, on the bulletin board of the main page.
– Followers ( Followers ): In the “Followers” section will be all those users who follow us. They can follow us for many reasons; the most common are because they are interested in what we write or because they are friends or colleagues of ours in real life. We remember that to follow someone it is not necessary to know us or ask us for permission. In addition, we can follow a user but he does not have to follow us, and vice versa.
– Tags ( hashtags ): It ‘s the way you have to categorize Twitter tweets . They serve to more easily follow a topic. The labels can be created by any user just by including the symbol ” # ” in front of the word or set of words in question. Clicking on the hashtag will open another timeline with all the tweets (even from people we don’t follow) who have incorporated this tag. For example, if we write a tweet about the American basketball league, we’ll end this with the #NBA hashtag. If we click on it, all the messages that are being made about the NBA will appear.
– Trends or Trending Topics : They are the topics of the moment. With the trending topics we will be able to see which are the most popular topics, the most talked about at the time on Twitter, which all appear together in a list. They are very useful to be informed. By default, Twitter shows you the global “TT”, but you can configure and choose the country and city by clicking “Change”.
– Lists : They serve to organize the users that we follow by themes, interests … what we like the most, with the aim that, if we follow many people, it will be easier to locate their publications. Twitter allows you to view and follow the lists created by other users.
– Direct messages ( DM ): All the tweets we publish are public, everyone can see them. However, Twitter also gives us the option to send a private message to another user, who will only see him; are the DMs or direct messages. In order to go to direct messages, we must click on the envelope icon, which is above. But attention, we can only send a private to the users who are following us.
These are the main concepts of Twitter. Like everything, it will take us a while to assimilate them, but once we have grasped the general mechanics, we will see that it is very easy to navigate this social network. Of all the concepts, surely the most essential is the tweet , because everything revolves around it. As we mentioned earlier, there are several types of tweets. Are these:
– Mention : It is a normal tweet in which you include the name of another user (which, remember, starts with an @). If we put the username in front of everything, the message will only be seen by the person we mentioned and the common followers we both have. There is no need to follow them or to follow us. If we mention another user, he will be notified that we have talked about him in a tweet , and also if they have mentioned us.
– Reply ( Reply ): It is a reply to another user. When we click to reply , Twitter automatically puts the name of that user preceded by the “@” at the beginning of the tweet , so that our response arrives.
– Retweet or RT : It is a tweet from another user that we decided to share on the profile because we liked it or because we think it is interesting. With retweets the entire content of the message is preserved. It is one of the ways that gives more prestige to a user. The unwritten formula – and with exceptions – is that the more retweets a message has, the better it is, despite the fact that it will depend a lot on the followers we have. If we have many followers, the chances that they will do RT are greater than if we have few.
To finish, we must mention another tool that Twitter provides: Favorites ( FAVs ). Represented by a little star, its use varies according to each user; There are two main uses: who uses it to tell the owner of the tweet in question that they liked it, and who uses it to archive the tweet that they find interesting and worth saving (since they are all stored in the Favorites section) . It is also important to add that all the interactions we have (mentions we have, retweets of our publications, favorites, etc.) are recorded in the Notifications tab., found in the top menu.
Twitter is a whole world and the most normal thing is that it takes us a few days to get used to it. However, once its operation is understood, a whole new world will open wide, since the options and possibilities that this social network gives us (interaction with users, immediate information, leisure content …) are very spacious.
