If you use Twitter you may already know some of the special syntax uses, but if you are a newbie or just want a refresher, here are a few explanations about what it is you may see in front of a tweet.
MT@mccordweb
Here you have modified a tweet written by us mccordweb or for that matter any Twitter handle can be inserted. It is nice to let your audience know that you started with someone else’s tweet and modified it.
Etiquette states that if you like something you leave the originating @ twitter handle in your tweet so others know where the credit is due.
RT@mccordweb
In this case you have retweeted something that I or another Twitter account has written. See MT if you change the retweet.
In this case you are directing Twitter to show your response and post it on the mccordweb page. Without the . in front of the @ your message will not be posted for all to see.
@mccordweb
In this case only people who follow me will see my response in a threaded conversation format. Spammers like to use this to force a post to your page which is also why Twitter enacted who sees @ messages by default an hence the need for an .@ message.
#KeyWord or #SearchTerm
Want to draw attention to something in your tweet or to categorize it for others use a # with no spaces or dashes between words. This morning I posted this: It is 9:38 AM Saturday morning and the #Hostway website is down taking my site with it. Within minutes I had responses with others looking for news on Hostway. You can also use the search function in many third party apps and at Twitter to see trending news that is tagged with hashtags (#).
We like to use a hashtag for keywords in social media and all platforms accept the # sign now even Facebook and Google+.
#FF
This means Follow Friday. This is a day where you list people that you like to follow using the @ sign with their handle. So your tweet would look like #FF @mccordweb, @nancymccord – great content and nice to chat wiith.
#USA
Twitter allows the use of hashflags. By using # and then a country code Twitter will actually show the country’s flag icon in your message.
You can do a search on Twitter for #HashFlags to see all the images.
Favorite
Now instead of responding to users when they retweet your message you favorite the tweet instead. This gives the person who has retweeted you additional exposure on your own profile.
If you’ve got something else to add to help inform our readers, make sure to click the comment button and leave your favorite tip. If you need help updating your Twitter account make sure to check out our Twitter writing services.