What is Twitter? (Source: Wikipedia)
Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access.
Here is some Twitter lingo you might find useful if you are new to Twitter:
Following – This refers to the users you are following so you can receive their messages.
@Username – Whenever you see the @ symbol in front of a name, this is the persons Twitter Username.
Tweet – A tweet is what everyone calls the post or message that you sent out. It’s like saying you texted, only the Twitter form.
RT – Retweet – This means that you copied a Tweet from someone else, and it sends it back out under your name so your followers can see it. Contrary to what you might think it is not plagiarizing, it’s actually a nice form of flattery when someone retweets one of your posts. This helps get your name out there to be seen by more people.
Tweets – Has 2 meanings. Refers to Tweet in a plural manner or it refers to your Twitter Peeps (people or friends).
DM- Direct Message. You can send someone a private message that they will get sent to their email address registered on their Twitter account.
# - This is referred to as a hashtag. You can add a hashtag in front of a topic, as a way of categorizing a topic. Last night many people used the #Oscars hashtag to follow all the tweets about the Oscars. I use #savvyblogging to ask questions or help out other bloggers in the savvyblogging community. Simply input the hashtag and topic into your Twitter post.
Let me give you a few reasons why I recommend having a Twitter Account. If you aren’t interested in a Twitter account, you can still follow my Tweets. I’ll tell you how at the bottom of this post.
1) It’s Free! You can sign up for a Twitter account and follow your friends who might also be on Twitter. You can add a Twitter application to your phone and use it on the go. My Twitter user name is @SavinFamlyMoney and you can follow me, so you don’t miss any deals.
2) Tweek Twitter to work for you. I just had to say it like that! I use Tweetdeck on my computer but I’m testing other applications on my iphone. In these Twitter applications you can do a search for a specific word or topic and anything that is Tweeted will show up in that column. For example, one of the searches I have is “coupon”. Anytime a Tweet is made, and not just who I’m following, but ANYBODY on Twitter, with the word “Coupon” in the Tweet, It will pop up in my coupon column. Here’s a quick snapshot:
3) Follow retailers, restaurants and News outlets and so much more. Here are just a few I follow: @mimis_cafe, @Bealls, and @BreakingNews (MSNBC news alerts). Follow your favorites and you might get news about sales, coupons and more. You can follow as many people or as little as you like. You can also lock down your tweets so only the people you want, can see what you tweet (write) about.
5) I like to Retweet other Tweets that I find useful. This just means that I’m copying the tweet and sending it out under my name so everyone that is following me, can also see the important info. Below is an example of a retweet I posted. The red arrow is pointing to the Twitter user who originally posted the deal: @RitasItalianIce and the “RT” in the front mean Retweet. The bottom row is my user name, the date it was tweeted and the application: Tweetdeck. The link is underlined and since Twitter only allows 140 characters, the links have been shortened to fit.
4) If you aren’t interested in having a Twitter account, but you still want to see my Tweets you can do it on my website. I’m testing a beta program with Tweetboard that allows me to have a Twitter tab on the left of my page and it pulls my Twitter stream in near real-time (max 1 min delay). It looks like this:
Click on the tab and a window will pop up that looks like this:
As you can see, the top one is a Retweet.
Twitter is a great way to stay informed on what you are interested in. I follow a lot of deal bloggers but you can follow whoever you want. Leave me a comment if you have any questions. I’d love to hear what you think of Twitter. Make sure you leave your Twitter name so I can follow you back. 
