1. Twitter 101
tweet Notes
An individual message is called a tweet.
Can be used as a verb: “I tweeted about the
stimulus package this morning.” Alternative is
“twittering.”
Alternatives include “post,” “message” and
“update.”
Maximum length is 140 characters per tweet.
follower or following
Follow other people and companies to receive
their tweets as they post.
Conversely, people get your messages by following
you.
1 Twitter 101 | ©2010-2012 Washington University Libraries

2. Shortened URLS Notes
URLs use up many of the 140 allowed
characters.
Links posted on Twitter via the website are
automatically shortened.
Many services take regular links and shrink
them down to a manageable length and even
let you track clicks.
You can’t tell what they link to, so click with
caution.
Samples:bit.ly, tinyurl.com, ow.ly, tr.im, su.pr
Lists
Twitter Lists are created and maintained by
Twitter users.
You can create your own or follow lists
created by others.
It can be overwhelming to follow everyone in
one timeline, lists can help manage
information.
A way to organize feeds you want to follow:
o follow people without adding them to
your home page
o follow topics instead of individuals
When looking at a user’s profile, click on the
Lists icon to add them to a list.
Listorious is a directory of Twitter lists.
2 Twitter 101 | ©2010-2012 Washington University Libraries

3. Direct Message (DM) Notes
Direct messages (DMs) are private – only the
sender and receiver can see them.
DMs are on your home page under the Direct
Messages tab
Can only DM people who are following you.
Conversely, you can receive them only from people
you’re following.
Send Direct Messages by using the pull-down
menu to choose a recipient and then typing in your
note.
Sample: DM to WUSTLlibraries: I’d like to schedule a
meeting in the Café next Tue at 10am
Tip: If you’re communicating about
something potentially sensitive, switch
to DM or email. Remember, @mentions
are public, so anyone can see them.
@username (at reply)
Click on “Reply” under a tweet in your timeline to
respond to the author. It will begin a tweet for you
with @username at the beginning.
Send public messages to people by beginning with
@username.
If the user is following your account, your message
will appear directly on his Twitter home page. (If
not, your message will appear in his @username
mentions folder.)
3 Twitter 101 | ©2010-2012 Washington University Libraries

4. RT @username (retweet) Notes
Retweeting (RT) is repostingpeople’s tweets and
giving them credit.
To retweet, click on “Retweet” under a tweet in
your timeline.
Retweeting is common and a form of conversation
on Twitter.
Used to spread messages and ideas across Twitter
quickly.
Sometimes people retweet manually and it looks
like this:
Sample: RT @WUSTLNSS Campus Electric Outage
http://nss.wustl.edu/node/314
Searching
Search for people using the Find People link.
Search for topics from your home page.
No advanced search features - all search is done via
#tag or keyword. It’s not very sophisticated but it
can get the job done.
Google does some twitter searching but it is very
new, methods and quality are uncertain.
#tag (hash tag)
Hashtags are the way to group and organize tweets
from multiple people.
Searches for a hashtag result in all of the related
messages.
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5. Hashtags are the # symbol followed by a term
describing or naming the topic.
If enough people use the same hashtag at once,
the term will appear in Twitter’s Trending Topics.
Conferences and events frequently have hashtags
associated with them (like #TED).
Sample:Are you reading Zahra's Paradise? You
should be. http://www.zahrasparadise.com/
#iranelection
Trending topics
The most-mentioned terms on Twitter at that
moment.
Continuously update, reflecting the real-time
nature of Twitter and true shifts in people’s
attention.
Trending Topics aggregate many tweets at once
and often break news ahead of the mainstream
media.
Trends often include hashtags.
Can view what is trending worldwide or in various
countries or cities.
Sources
“The Simple Twitter Book | Brent Ozar - Too Much Information,” http://www.brentozar.com/twitter/book/.
“Twitter 101 — Learning the lingo,” http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/learning.
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6. Resources
Want more information?
Twitter 101 LibGuide :: http://libguides.wustl.edu/twitter101
Washington University Libraries Twitter Page :: http://twitter.com/WUSTLlibraries
Instructors
Jaleh Fazelian
jfazelia@wustl.edu
http://twitter.com/jaleh_f
Makiba Foster
mfoster@wustl.edu
http://twitter.com/makibaj
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