Never fear. I’m here to tell you some silly stories about my mistakes so you don’t repeat them! I’m going to start a series of posts on fun words and acronyms that may frighten those new to the internet or to Social Media. Internet Speak: Part One is going to mostly focus on twitter because twitter can be tough.

You have to use short hand in twitter because you only get 140 characters to say what you want to say. Some of the Internet Speak used on twitter is NOT intuitive no matter what the know-it-alls say

1. The follow:

Follow you WHERE???

When I first heard about twitter I had a hard time understanding the concept of following someone. Monica and I had many comical conversations regarding “the follow” as I was really over thinking the whole thing.

When you choose to follow someone, it means that their tweets will show up, along with all of the other people’s tweets that you have chosen to follow, on your home screen.

If you follow someone, they may or may not choose to follow you back. This is NOT a terrible thing. People follow people for different reasons. I follow A LOT of PR and Social Media people on twitter because I’m interested in what other people in my chosen field have to say. I probably would not follow a… botanist. Unless of course they were hilarious.

2. The “@” Tag:

You want me to @ reply you?

When using twitter, in order to respond to someone directly and have their name be clickable, you HAVE to attach an @ symbol to the beginning of someone’s name when referring to them. This is your way of telling twitter that this is a person using twitter and that you’d like their name to be linkable. If you do not use an @ symbol before someone’s twitter handle, it won’t link. I know this because I did this A LOT when I first started using twitter.

When someone asks a question or makes and statement and says in their post “@ reply me,” they are simply asking for your thoughts. If you start your post with @soandso it will show up in the @Replies section on their home, whether or not they follow you.

Keep in mind that you can @reply to someone on any occasion. Agree with something they just tweeted? throw an @reply at them! If they don’t already follow you, it may result in a new follower!

Remember that “@Replies” tab in the right hand navigation on your homescreen. Like I said, I have discovered some really cool people to follow through this feature.

Real tweet using an @Reply:

@she_eats: So…I cut my own hair tonight. As it turns out, there’s a reason why people pay professionals to do that for them.

I replied with: @she_eats one time my little sister and I cut and colored my hair. I ended up with a neon orange pixie cut. Mom still blackmails me w pics! 

3. The OH tag:

People on Twitter sure love Ohio!

Day one on twitter and I’m thinking… these people LOVE Ohio. OH this, OH that. What is with Ohio?!

OH stands for overheard, NOT Ohio, although I still laugh at myself about this and am kind of glad I made this particular mistake as it makes for a funny story.

OH can be used to tweet random funny things you overhear strangers saying on the street or you can tweet random funny things your coworkers say without totally calling them out. When you OH someone, you don’t have to use their name or even KNOW there name. I have read some pretty darn funny OH tweets. People say hilarious things!

Real tweet using an OH:

MagsMac: OH “If we made Warren Buffet the quarterback of the economy… what?! I’m trying to talk in your language!”

Whew…

I know this post was super long and I want to thank you if you made it till the end. The reason I decided to break this post up into a series was because it was originally much MUCH longer. I know… collective sigh of relief

If there are any other twitter-isms that baffle you, leave them in the comments!