ELEMENTS OF A TWEET
Here are the basics of a tweet to get you started!
@ – Always precedes the handle of the person you’re addressing, mentioning, or cc’ing (e.g. @berksgastruth)
# – Always precedes the keyword (e.g. #fracking) or special tag you’ve created for an event or action (e.g. #NoTrespassingNoPipeline). You can search hashtags to see all tweets that include it.
$ – Always precedes a ticker symbol for a company. This is an EXCELLENT way to go after a company’s investors and catch the eye of financial press. (e.g. $RRC – Range Resources’ ticker symbol)
. – Putting a period at the beginning of a tweet addressed to someone is used to trick Twitter into not restricting with whom the tweet is shared. (e.g. .@berksgastruth check out this new study!)
Links – You can add links to articles, photos, videos. Twitter automatically shrinks tweets to 21 or 22 characters based on whether the URL starts with http: or https: and creates short links for photos.
RT – Shorthand for Retweet. Best to use the retweet icon under a tweet. You may see manual retweets (e.g. RT @user their tweet).
MT – Shorthand for Modified Tweet. Used when you are altering the content of something you are retweeting. (e.g. MT @user modified tweet)
#FF – This hashtag is used on Fridays to suggest users others may want to follow. (e.g. this tweet from Earthworks, Fracking #FF: @johnlundin @joelgehman @nickcunningham1 @ecowatch @BerksGasTruth @POW_no_fracking @FracTracker @skytruth @RisingTideNA)
These are the basic elements you’ll see in many tweets. Don’t overdo using these in tweets. You’ll still see plenty of things you may not understand when you look at a tweet, abbreviations like IMHO or ICYMI. The language of Twitter is like the language of vanity license plates.
Download Elements of a Tweet! [gview file=”http://www.gastruth.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/ELEMENTS-OF-A-TWEET.pdf”]