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General Text Messaging definitions
There are scores of places on the web to find the definitions for this texting shorthand that is developing around short-form messaging, but here’s a decent on to start with:
http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp
Twitter Tags – what do they mean?
@<username> – Use this tag when you want someone <username> to see your post, such as when you’re talking about her or asking her a question.
.@<username> – If you want everyone to see the post regardless of whether or not they follow <username>, don’t start the post w/ @. You can use anything, even a simple period to accomplish this.
D<space><username> – Use this if you want to send a private message to a user.
#<keyword> – Use this if you want a tweet to be picked up by twitter search for a topic.
RT @<username> – Use this when you want to pass a tweet along and want to give credit to the originator.
Twitter Search – http://search.twitter.com/
Setting up email (for MAC)
Go to http://search.twitter.com/set up your search term. Find the RSS feed link. From the options “Subscribe to this feed using” select applications. Under applications find mail. Hit subscribe. Apple mail uses an RSS feeder to send alerts. They’ll show up just like an email.
If you want to have search terms sent directly to an email address there are several 3rd party apps you can use.
If you have a favorite please let us know which one you are using and why you like it.
Setting up rss reader alerts:
The easiest way to follow search results is to add a search column to Tweetdeck or whatever Twitter application that you use. However, on the results page from http://search.twitter.com/, you can grab the RSS Feed link and add it to whatever feed reader you use, such as Google Reader.
Trending Topics
Use trending topics to find out which topics are hot in a specific area. Especially if you use current events to draw attention to your blog, or for inspiration for your comics, art, writing or what have you, trending topics is a great tool to see what might be relevant.
Listed
Dunbar’s Number is a concept that basically states that most people can only handle about 150 people/connections in a single organization before you get too big to really manage. Lists helps you break down a large group of people into more easily manageable sets, and also lets your followers know who’s who in your follower list.
By putting someone in a list, you define why you follow them, and let people know who you feel is worth following in a certain topic. You and your friends can all list each other to help other people find you.
Favorites
Favorite tweets that you or others make that you want to remember or be able to more easily find again. I’ve been told that there is also some Google juice to this, but I’m not entirely sure of that.
Retweeting
When passing along tweets that you particularly like, use the tag RT before a username (for instance – RT @username) to give them credit. Its polite, good web karma, and will keep people from thinking of you as a plagiarizer.
Creative Independence Twitter Page
