Note from @Tammykfennell: This post is written by MarketMeSuite intern @trishbaden and edited by myself and the fab @nikki__peters. Trish helps even the new Tweeter learn the best ways to get the most out of 140 characters! Trish is also regular contributor to our blog, WeAreSocialPeople.com.

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 terms explained. 

This post 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. (see this cool article on how to automatically populate a follow friday list)

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, my editors @tammykfennell and @nikki__peters and of course, the fab @MarketMeSuite.

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