@ : This is what you use to reply to someone’s post, but if you already have a twitter account you should already know this. If you want to see what people have said as replies to you, login to your account and go to the twitter homepage (http://twitter.com/home ). You will then need to click the @yourusername in the right sidebar to see your replies.

RT: This stands for “ReTweet” and means that you are just sharing this tweet that you read from someone you’re following, with your followers

DM: This means “Direct Message” and is just like a PM in other social networks which stands for a “Private Message”. To get your DM’s go to the homepage of twitter when you’re logged in and click “Direct Messages” on the right sidebar.

PRT: This acronym can mean two things which makes it confusing. It can mean “Please ReTweet” or “Partial ReTweet”. I like to think of it as the former instead of the latter because who would really care if you amended a retweet anyway?

TMB: Tweet Me Back – If you really want a response this may help

ROFL: Rolling on the floor laughing – This is one of the man variations of LOL – laughing out loud

BTW: By the way – a good acronym for shortening something similar to PS – post script

#: Hashmarks – these are not meant to be an acronym to be used literally, but are a way to tag something so that when someone searches for a topic, the tweet that uses these for that particular grouping will show up. One example is “#haiku”. When you put this in the twitter search (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23haiku ) you can see who all of the haiku’s that were tagged with this hashmark phrase.

It was created in 2006 by CEO Evan Williams, and now it is mostly owned by venture capitalists investors that have yet to really monetize the micro blogging service. It appears as though the owners of twitter will be trying to inject ads similar to those seen on Google.com & Yahoo.com as a way to make revenue with this website.

There are myriad ways that people are using twitter today, but the main features and usability of the service is quite simple. When you sign up for an account you get your own link www.twitter.com/yourusername and then with this new account you can post as many “tweets” as you want. These tweets are then displayed on your profile page listed above. Tweets show up on other people who are following you (“followers”) homepages when they are logged in. When you publish a tweet you can prohibit access of delivery to those in their circle of friends or allow anybody to see them. Tons of different services, mobile applications and other websites allow you to send and receive tweets with their software, applications etc.

The phenomenon of the growth of twitter as one of the largest social platforms on the Web is amazing, but not entirely unexpected. With the use of the Internet growing widely, combined with the direct messages from advertisements throughout the day, people’s attention span has grown accustom to bite sized bits of information. Everyone has jumped on board the twitter bandwagon, everyone from companies like Starbucks and GM to the President of The United States now use twitter to update readers on their day to day happenings.

The reason that so many people and businesses are using twitter on a daily business is because it gives them another, very effective way to connect with thousands of real people every day. Many consumers value social communication like that of twitter posts more than any other type of customer service, marketing, or form of communication. People who use twitter are receiving tidbits of information that they are very interested in, and it comes from across all the Web. These microblogs keep twitter users entertained, informed and in touch with the people, products, services and companies they love.

Here are some interesting industry twitter feeds that we have found valuable and entertaining:

http://twitter.com/styleture – Notable Designs and Functional Living Spaces
http://twitter.com/methome – Metropolitan Home Magazine
http://twitter.com/InStyledotcom – In Style Magazine
http://twitter.com/Interior_Design – Interior Design Magazine
http://twitter.com/archiCentral – ArchiCentral – Architectural News
http://twitter.com/hgtvdecorating – HGTV Decorating