I love Twitter. To help streamline my life, I use Twitter to update my Facebook profile status.
Well earlier this week, I posted:
RT @rdearborn #SROI @kanter proving she can explain complicated ROI theories and also conquer PPT templates with humorous photos.
Three minutes later, one of my Facebook friends commented:
I have to be honest I never understand these status updates
I had to laugh. It does look like so much gibberish as a Facebook status update!
So, if you’re new to Twitter, or have friends on Facebook with statuses that look like this, here’s a way to translate those messages:
- RT = “Retweet”
A retweet is a tweet I’m passing on. I didn’t originate the tweet, but I liked it and wanted to share it with my networks. - @____ = the Twitter user
In this case @rdearborn (Rachel Dearborn) is the person that made the original tweet and @kanter (Beth Kanter) is the person she’s tweeting about. (I’m @marcapitman.) - #___ = a “hashtag”
A hashtag is a label to help others follow Twitter conversations by using something like http://search.twitter.com/. This one — #SROI — was a webinar on how to determine social media return on investment. - PPT = Microsoft PowerPoint.
With Twitter, you only get 140 characters so this kind of shorthand is VERY helpful. But it can be confusing in Facebook! 
P.S. To hear Beth Kanter’s webinar on determining the ROI on social media, go to this link to the #sroi webinar recording.
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12 responses so far ↓
1 Sandra Sims // Feb 20, 2009 at 9:38 am
LOL… Yes a lot of the tweets make no sense on Facebook. I deactivated that FB plugin.
2 Marc A. Pitman // Feb 20, 2009 at 10:22 am
Interesting. How do you do both Twitter and FB? Do you just manage them independently?
3 Sandra Sims // Feb 20, 2009 at 10:59 am
Most of my “real life friends” are on FB not Twitter. So I get notices from FB by email a couple times a week, reminds me to go back there.
4 Marc A. Pitman // Feb 20, 2009 at 11:58 am
That’s cool that you can segment that way! Very nice.
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6 David Clifton // Apr 27, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I see another abbrieviation all the time on twitter and cannot for the life of me figure it out.
What does “amp” mean
7 Marc A. Pitman // Apr 27, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Great question…I think it must be part of the & sign, also known as an ampersand.
The HTML code to get a & is: &
8 Randy Danford // May 10, 2009 at 6:40 pm
I have the same question as David Clifton on the “&”. What does it stand for on twitter? I see it all the time. If it means “ampersand” then why is there an ampersand in front of the “amp”. This is a little confusing. I guess because I don’t use it in my bio.
9 Marc A. Pitman // May 10, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Hi Randy, Like I told David, that Twitter is showing the HTML code for the & sign rather than the symbol itself.
The HTML codes for many symbols is available at:
http://www.ascii.cl/htmlcodes.htm
10 Randy Danford // May 10, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Thanks Marc for the quick response. So it is not us it’s Twitter. I completely understand now. It is amazing how when I looked at them all the time the wondering kept me alert to find out and thanks to you now I know. Randy D.
11 Marc A. Pitman // May 10, 2009 at 7:53 pm
No worries. It’s something that’s bugged me too!!
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