The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, 3rd Edition

On the Lighter Side of Microblogging

Some Twitter Jargon

Twitter is the most prevalent microblogging technology used today.

• A tweeter is a person using Twitter to send out posts or tweets.
• A tweet is a post or text message sent from one twitterer to another.
• A retweet (RT) is reposting someone else’s tweet
• The tweeting community is called the Twittersphere.

Much like e-mail, once you hit Send, the tweet is out there. A regretted tweet is called a Mistweet. (Never tweet after a bottle of Chardonnay.)

Google Maps has a mash-up called Twittervision, which shows users the geographic location of twitterers. The list of Twitter jargon goes on and on.

Corporate Tweeters

Small, medium, and large companies alike are beginning to adopt social media tools into their marketing, public relations, communications, and customer service approaches. Like any early adopters, these companies will have a significant advantage over those who wait until social media becomes mainstream. Here are just a few of the many large companies that have incorporated microblogging into their corporate culture:

• Southwest Airlines regularly tweets as one of its standard customer service tools. The following is an actual tweet from Southwest Airlines: twitpic.com/1bzrxh
  
  —Today, SW Employees donated these Easter Baskets to DAL Ronald McDonald House & Children’s Medical Center Dallas 10:22 AM March 30, 2010” (a TwitPic ...