What does it all mean? Twitter lingo is important for marketers to learn in order to engage effectively on the social media platform. To begin demystifying the terminology, following are explanations about the lingo that has evolved since the birth of Twitter, as well as how to use the terms.

HASHTAGGING

# – On Twitter, this symbol (#) is considered a hashtag used to mark keywords or topics within your tweet. By including a hashtag in your tweet, your tweet appears in a feed of all tweets tagged with the same keyword. For example, if you tweet:

• The tweet with the hashtagged keyword “advertising” will appear in a feed with all other tweets using the #advertising hashtag. This offers more exposure for your tweet and subject matter, while linking it to a common topic across the Twittersphere.

• Marketers can use this to identify with industry keywords, trending topics or even to engage followers with social media campaigns. Here are some examples of successful Hashtag campaigns from companies like Domino’s Pizza and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream: http://on.mash.to/Ja0flJ

• DO NOT: Spam with hashtags. Hashtag stuffing or over-tagging a single tweet can come across over zealous and spamming. Limit hashtags to 2 per tweet.

MENTIONING

@ – The @ sign stands for “@ mentioning”. This allows users to call out usernames in Tweets, linking the tweet to the mentioned Twitter profile.  If you want to share something specifically with another Twitter user, use their username and place the @ sign before it.

• For example, including @jamanocchio in a tweet sends an alert to Jennifer’s Twitter account that I have mentioned her in a tweet, prompting her to respond.

• Marketers should use @ mentions to engage with Twitter followers – whether they are customers, media or complete strangers. This can help create exposure for your brand and help shape the identity and perception of your company.

TWEET UP

Short for Twitter meet up, a Tweet Up is a gathering of your Twitter followers. Depending on your social media standing, this can be an effective way to bring your Twitter followers together. These can be local small gatherings of organizations within your community to large massive meetings and campaigns in various industries.

• For example, your local brewery may host a Tweet Up at their facility and invite Twitter followers to meet for drink specials, free brewery tours and entertainment.
• On a larger scale, check out how NASA uses Tweet Ups to give followers the opportunity to attend shuttle launches! Explore the NASA Tweet Up Program and watch the video on how they made some people very happy through social media: http://1.usa.gov/Mo2mDD