You Can Speak the Language of Twitter
There is a fence around Twitter, a fence that keeps insiders in and locks outsiders out. We’re talking about a wall of language. Twitter-speak. The odd “Yiddish” surrounding this social media shtetl, with its mish-mash of pound signs and abbreviations and unusual 140-character-and-under expressions. The language barrier prevents many day school people from stepping foot into the popular social media site. This is unfortunate because there are tons of profitable conversations to be had on Twitter, with day school parents, prospective parents, board members, administrators, philanthropists, alumni, teachers, federation folk, educational theorists, you name it. (See, for instance, the good stuff happening at PEJE’s Twitter stream).
Thing is, this vastly intimidating wall is… a flimsy chain-linked fence. All you need to hop over it is a quick lesson in the lingua franca. We understand that some concepts are more complex than others, so we’ve given each one a tag: Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced. Scroll down and learn up.
Favorite (Basic)
Click the Favorite link to show your extreme approval of a particular tweet. How to find the Favorite link? Mouse to the right of the time stamp—the little gray message that notes the time or date you posted—under any given tweet, and a list of three hyperlinked responses will appear: Favorite (with a non-Jewish star), Retweet (with a rectangle of arrows), and Reply (with a left-pointing arrow). Note: when you Favorite something, the Favorite star glows golden, and a triangular section of star emerges in the upper-left-hand corner of your tweet. (Note that, in Figure 1, I have already clicked the “Favorite” button, which is why its opposite—the word “Unfavorite”—now appears.)
Figure 1: The Favorite Link
Followers (Basic)
The people sign up to view your tweets. Beware of Followers with shifty sounding bios, or who seem to have nothing in common with you, or who have lots of Followers but zero tweets. There’s no obligation to accept a Follower on Twitter, and if something doesn’t seem Kosher, you’re entitled to block them.
Figure 2: To Follow or Not to Follow
If you want to Follow someone, go to their profile page and click on the Follow button—the one with the green circle and the plus sign. Click on it, and you’re a Follower.
Figure 3: The Follow Button
If you’re looking for suggestions about people to Follow, click on the “Who To Follow” link at the very top of your Twitter profile page:
Figure 4: Who to Follow
And, oh yes, Please Follow us: @PEJEjds.
#FF or Follow Friday (Intermediate)
We Jews have Shabbat; Twitter has, l’havdil, Follow Friday. It’s a kind of small celebration in which a Twitter user mentions to one’s Followers other interesting followers. Some people use this as a way to thank publically the people they’ve interacted with during the week. Generally speaking, it is polite to thank someone when you land in an #FF list. This might be done by “TR,” which is a twitter-ficient way of saying Todah Rabah.
Figure 5: A Sample Follow Friday (#FF) List
Hashtag (Advanced)
A hashtag is the means by which people identify remarks and conversations in Twitter. A hashtag—a word preceded by a #—marks a particular conversation on a particular topic. Let’s say you and a bunch of other twitterers wanted to talk about Jewish day school sustainability. You might add somewhere into your tweets “#jdssusatinability.” Of course, it’s not always easy to get a whole bunch of people using the same hashtag, though some are quite popular in the day school world. The hashtag #jed21 is omnipresent, but you might also try #jewished and #jewishtech. If you’re an admission person, try #jdsadmissions!
Figure 6: The Hashtag (#)
List (Advanced)
This is a group of people with a common interest. You can either create or follow lists. To create a list: First, click on the “Lists” link, beneath the “What’s Happening” box:
Figure 7: The Lists Link
Then choose “Create a list,” and then fill out the List name, Description, and Privacy sections:
Figure 8: Create a New List
To add people your Lists: every time you add a new Follower, click the gray head-and-shoulders icon in the upper right-hand corner and down will pop a list of options (Mention, Add to list, Block, and Report). Choose “Add to list”
Figure 9: Add to List
Finally, put your Follower into the proper List(s):
Figure 10: Organize Your Lists
@Mentions (Medium)
If you want to know what’s being said about you on Twitter, click on the @Mentions link (second item from the left, beneath the “What’s happening?” box):
Figure 11: The @Mentions Link
The @Mentions function quickly collects and displays (?) all the conversations that concern you.
Figure 12: Putting @Mention to Work
Reply (Basic)
Twitter provides you with an easy way to reply to any given tweet. Remember: You must place the mouse just beneath a tweet to make the “Reply” button appear.
Figure 13: The Reply Button
Retweet or RT (Intermediate)
One of the best ways to build relationships on Twitter is to repost other people’s tweets to your followers. The process is known as a Retweet or, as they say in character conserving Twitter-speak, RT. To do so, you hit the Retweet button and, boom, off it goes. If you wish to have other people retweet your stuff—and you should—you can ask politely, “Please RT.” Or if you’re in the mood for some guilt, “Would it kill you to RT this?” (Note that, in Figure 14, David Galpert has already clicked the Retweet button, which is why it’s opposite—the words “Undo Retweet”—now appears.)
Figure 14: The Retweet (RT) Button
Tweet (Basic)
A single unit of Twitter-based expression. Don’t be a wise guy: 140 or fewer characters, please.
Figure 15: A Simple Tweet
Tweetup (Intermediate)
An offline meeting of you and at least one other Twitter pal. We tried to get the term social media shidduch out there, but it just didn’t catch on.
Figure 16: Tweetup
TR (Basic)
TR is how you abbreviate Todah Rabah for Twitter users. It’s something a social media mentsh says as often as possible.
Figure 17: Todah Rabah (TR)
BY KEN GORDON
Ken Gordon is the Social Media Manager of PEJE. He cordially invites you to friend our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.