- Tweet - The message you want to send, similar to a Facebook status update. However, unlike Facebook you are limited to 140 characters on Twitter. Be direct with your intended message.
- Hashtag - You've probably seen these all over TV and advertisements. The hashtag is what keeps messages together in one subject area. If you've ever visited a forum on the internet you've seen how messages are arranged by topic. This is what a hashtag does as well. If you send a message out without a hashtag, your message is only visible to those that follow you. By including a related hashtag to your message you could potentially reach thousands or millions of other Twitter members.
- Short URL - Since you only have 140 characters for your message, every character in that message is important. If you need to include a website address in your Tweet, it is best to use a website that will shorten your URL. There are many sites that provide this service for free such as Google, Bit.ly, or TinyURL. What they do is take a normal URL which could be quite long and shrink it down to fit within 10-12 characters. This gives you more room for your original message.
- Retweet - Often times you'll see the letters RT in a message. This means that someone else has 'Retweeted' a message. This means that instead of typing from scratch the same message they have resent the message under their own account while giving credit to the original sender. One of the most frequent answers given when asking educators why they don't use Twitter is 'I don't have time to read all that.' That's the great thing about Twitter, if a message sent out is good enough it will be resent (or Retweeted) over and over. So you may see a message that was originally sent hours or even days later.
- Modified Tweet - There are times when you want to RT information but would also like to add your own comment along with it. When this happens and you don't have enough characters, you may need to edit the original message slightly. If that occurs it is common to see MT (Modified Tweet) to let your users know you've slightly modified the original message.
- Mention - A tweet that includes your username. This could be messages back and forth between you and another member, however this is not a private message. It is public and able to be seen on your timeline.
- Direct Message - A message sent between you and another Twitter member that IS private. You must both be following each other in order to direct message each other.
- Likes - If you'd like to save Tweets to refer back to later, you can like that tweet. It will remain in your Likes until you remove it. This is similar to a bookmark in your web browser.
- Followers - These are the Twitter users who are following you.
- Following - These are the Twitter users who you are following.