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Twitter is about creating conversations. The social media platform has become a go-to social media platform for artists, musicians and content creators alike.

The use of hashtags, search and the ability make lists have offered users the opportunity to create value and form deep connections with fans. Playing off of Tribalism, Twitter allows users to form cohorts through the use of hashtags surrounding celebrities, musicians, events and locally (city, state, etc).

Even though Twitter has improved astronomically from its earlier days concerning User Experience. Twitter is still limited to 280-characters (Up from 140), four photos and one gif. With the addition of audio tweets, the social media platform continues to evolve how we communicate and engage with fans.

Twitter lingo has been apart of the social media platform since its inception back in 2006. Being used to describe functionalities, emotions and expressions. Twitter lingo is a natural fit given how humans communicate through text message.

Same communication. Different medium.

Given the limited amount of characters at 280, Twitter lingo has been a great way for users to effectively communicate without having to under explain. The use of threads has also been added that allow users to continue the conversation or reply.

For artists, musicians or content creators who are using Twitter as a marketing platform. Your online brand is the first encounter with potential followers. Before they make the decision to follow you or engage with your content they will ultimately be judging you based off of your conversations, engagements and image. This fact alone is why your personal brand should take the lead when developing a social media strategy for your career.

A solid brand is crucial when building your network and creating rapport with other artists, labels and industry regulars. The ultimate goal is to have your brand resonate with your target audience, no matter it be fans, label executives or concert promoters.

If branding yourself online, creating conversations and engaging your fan base is the aim. Twitter is the perfect platform to get started. Although, there is a lot of noise when it comes to social media. There is a wealth of creatives, artists and professionals to connect with through the sharing of blog posts, websites, news, videos, photos and podcasts.

The convenience at play is that there are millions of people using Twitter as a marketing platform. So there are plenty of conversations to take note of. As well as connecting and working with artists and music professionals with similar mindsets.

Now lets check out 20 Twitter facts that make the social media platform a go-to for artists, musicians and content creators.

Facts About Twitter

1. Twitter has 145 million monetizable daily active users.
2. 30 million (or 20%) of Twitter’s daily users are American.
3. 92% of the U.S. population is familiar with Twitter (even if they don’t use it).
4. 22% of adults in the U.S. use Twitter.
5. 44% of U.S. 18- to 24-year-olds use Twitter.
6. U.S.-based Twitter users are younger, have more education, and more income than the general U.S. population.
7. The most active U.S. Twitter users have 20x as many followers, on average.
8. 12% of Americans get their news from Twitter (71% of Americans on Twitter are using it to read news.).
9. Twitter’s site referral traffic is up 6%, year-over-year (Instagram: 56%, Facebook: 29%, YouTube: 22%).
10. Twitter users are more likely to like brands that are inclusive and transparent.
11. Twitter ad engagement is up 23%.
12. Twitter ads with video are 50% cheaper in cost-per-engagement.
13. Twitter users spend 26% more time with ads than other social media users.
14. Twitter users spend 24% more time with ads posted by ‘creators’.
15. 25% of Twitter’s most prolific users use scheduling software.
16. Tweets with hashtags gets 100% more engagement.
17. People watch 2 billion videos on Twitter per day.
18. Watching video is the #3 reason people use Twitter.
19. Tweets with video get 10x the engagement.
20. 93% of video views on Twitter happen on mobile.

Keeping Up On The Latest Twitter Lingo

The more and more you tweet and use Twitter, the more you will see people using certain Twitter slang or lingo.

Checkout a few terms below that you may come across or add to your Twitter repertoire.

W/ — With.

TT — Translated tweet: a notice that an initial tweet has been translated to a different language.

TQRT — Thanks for the retweet.

TMB — Tweet me back.

TLDR or TL;DR — Too long ; Didn’t read.

This lingo can be used to express that your content or tweet was too long to read. It can also be used to insult or troll someone, indicating that the comment or tweet isn’t worth their time.

TIL — Today I learned.

TFTF — Thanks for the follow.

SMH — Shaking my head.

This is term used to express disappointment or display cynicism.

RT — Retweet.

This is applied when you add a comment to a tweet, as a way of forwarding another account’s tweet. Such as, “Checkout!!! RT @Twitter: This article is a must read! http://www.funny.com.”

RLRT — Real life retweet.

This is best used to express a “in real life” noteworthy tweet or retweet from a user.

PRT — Partial retweet.

This is a way of letting people know you have altered a tweet. In original tweets or RT, it can also mean “please retweet.”

OH — Overheard.

On Twitter, this is a way of relaying a comical or alarming statement that you may have overheard by another individual or on Twitter itself.

NSFW — Not safe for work.

This term falls in the category of graphic content or inappropriate behavior.

MT or MRT — Modified tweet or modified retweet.

This is more so a tactic that can be used when you are editing or altering an initial tweet when you have hit your 280-character limit.

MM — Music Monday.

This term has recently become a trending topic. It used to be a fashionable way to make recommendations of your newly favorited artists, usually at the start of the week by using #MM.

ICYMI — In case you missed it.

This is a tactic that is used when a Twitter user recycles previously tweeted content from earlier.

HT — Periodically phrased H/T, “Hat Tip” is a virtual ‘course of action’ to demonstrate a positive gesture to the user who originally posted the content that you are tweeting.

This is also comparable to using “via” (also popular on Twitter and used in the same context) a H/T is usually followed by an @ .

For example, “Thanks for the love — www.music.com. HT @musichead

FF — #FF means “Follow Friday.”

This is an approach that users take to recommend certain accounts or suggest that their followers follow specific accounts.

DM — Direct message.

This is a way to directly message a user on Twitter, some users have their DMs open to public and other accounts have to be mutually following each other.

This is the only way to ‘confidentially’ communicate on the platform. So, it is common to see a few tweets such as, “I’ll DM the info,” or “DM me for more details,” etc.

CX — Correction.

CC — Simply meaning ‘Carbon Copy.’

This is another tactic that is used to draw attention to someone’s mention or tweet in general. For example, you start with an @ mention — “Great read — www.money.com — cc @JayZ — it can hopefully grab the intended person’s attention to the Tweet.

AFAIK — As far as I know.

$ — This is a financial hashtag that is used to identify a company’s stock market code/name.

For example, the tweets and codes that are prefixed with the dollar sign will become links such as $MSFT (Microsoft), $GOOG (Google) and $AAPL (Apple).

^ — The caret is used to mark that a tweet has been wrote and posted by a user who has access or works for an organization that operates the account.

This will appear at the end of the Tweet, usually as a signature of some sort to identify who has posted the tweet (e.g., ^NW).

#— This can be used to highlight topics, events, keywords and even feelings.

On Twitter, hashtags create links that let you see conversations as a whole and other user who are using the links as well.

For example: Watching #CollegeBasketball, “Enjoying the #weather, “Headed to #SomerSet,” “Short day — feeling #energized.”

@ — This is a way to mention another Twitter user (e.g., @227_Nick).

It’s a way to link another user’s Twitter profile or it can be used to refer to an account’s location. “I’m @ the show and it’s lit.”

Extra: Setup Lists and Follow Hashtags

One of the knocks on Twitter is that it used to be hard to follow.

Overtime, the Twitter UX team has addressed these issues by making the Twitter experience more enticing for the casual user. The social media platform has added threads, audio tweets and timeline settings to help users take control of their online interactions.

It used to be that if you weren’t on Twitter and someone tweeted something of substance. The only way to access previous Tweets would be to access the app, search for the user’s profile or scroll through your timeline.

The overall idea of Twitter is that you are online with other people at the same time (in real-time). Understandably, you won’t be able to see what everyone is tweeting at a given moment. This is why Twitter lists and hashtags are key to the flow of communication. It is an effective way to organize information and create value.

Twitter is essentially a giant public chat room for all to see. Even if people don’t have a Twitter profile, they can still see your timeline through Google searches or accessing your profile link.

Twitter provides a setting for you to filter your timeline by ‘Latest tweets’ or ‘Top tweets’. The ‘Latest tweets’ setting will display real-time tweets and the ‘Top tweets’ setting will display tweets from the accounts that you interact with the most.

The timeline setting can be switched back and forth depending on your preference. This is a great way to stay up to date with everything that is happening while you’re not on Twitter.

In addition to using these tactics, here are some tips to help make your Twitter more experience more efficient.

• You can go directly to the Twitter profile of the person you want to follow and see what they’ve tweeted or set up alerts to get a notification every time they send a tweet.
• Search for the hashtags of the event or conversation you want to join. Then select the “Live” tab to see ‘real-time tweets’ that are apart of the larger conversation.
• Turn on your push notifications. Download the mobile app on your phone so you can get push notifications, such as ‘Popular Tweets’, Network activity and related news when it breaks. This is a great feature when you are trying to keep an eye on certain topics or content creators and can’t be online at every second.