Lawrence Block seems to be of the opinion that John Locke’s latest book, “How I Sold a Million Books in Five Months” is largely responsible for the sudden influx of writers and authors to the Twitterverse. Whether Mr. Locke has had that much influence or not is not really the issue. The issue is that I have noticed many more writers and authors in Twitter and their profile numbers indicate that most of them are twitter newbies. Some of these folks have asked me about the cryptic shorthand Twitterers use as well as heaping praise and adoration upon me for my methods of welcoming new followers. OK, maybe that’s just a tad over the top, but not by much: Twitter users, whether paduan learner or master, really do appreciate the recognition.
I remember a time (two months ago, to be exact) when I too was staring at the twitter screen and asking myself, “How in the world does this thing work?” and “What the flapjacks does THAT mean?” So I thought I’d endeavor to cobble together a plain-English Newbie Nuggets guide to Twitter to help all these new folks get up to speed.
The Lingo
The hardest part for me was learning what all that cryptic goobledy-gook meant, when to use it, when not to, and why you can’t just say what you mean. As I write this I’m still learning some of it, but here is a quick run-down of the most common terms, and how to use them. Continue reading “For Twitter Newbies: Nuts & Bolts”