There’s a lot of buzz about Twitter these days and millions of people are flocking to join the conversation.  With messages (tweets) being limited to 140 characters, people have become very creative in finding ways to pack a lot of information in such a small space.  Unfortunately, for new people trying to dive in, the conversations and tweets they witness are confusing and often appear to be in a different language entirely.

Although this is only the beginning of the list of tweet types…it’s a good place to start if you’re a beginner on Twitter and you’re trying to understand what those tweets say!

The simple public tweet:

• The Tweet – Working on a Sunday…checking out DeskAway…any fans out there?

• About the Tweet – This is a comment made that will show up in the public stream of tweets.

The Reply Tweet:

• The Tweet – Helping @emailstationery get visitors to their booth at #kwfr in #orlando

• About the Tweet – This tweet is going to show up in the public stream of tweets.  It’s also going to let @emailstationery know that this tweet is meant for them.  In addition to the tweet showing up in the public stream, @emailstationery will also receive a copy in their “@ replies inbox.”  The #kwfr and #orlando are referred to as a hash tags and signify a trending topic on Twitter that people want to follow.  In this case it was the Keller Williams Family Reunion convention in Orlando.  Agents at the event were using this hash tag to find each other on Twitter during the entire weekend of events.

The ReTweet:

• The Tweet – RT @mashable: HOW TO: Deal With Social Media Conflict http://tinyurl.com/cvu8fs

• About the Tweet – RT is short for ReTweet.  You’ll see this when someone on Twitter wants to give credit to the person that originally sent out the Tweet.  This is commonly used when someone posts a link to a great article and others want to share it.  By inserting @mashable we are letting others know where the tweet originated.  The title of the article @mashable is posting a tweet about is HOW TO: Deal With Social Media Conflict and the direct hyperlink that will take you to the actual article is http://tinyurl.com/cvu8fs

The Post a link Tweet:

• The Tweet – Delicious Fear and Loathing in Social Media: Awesome view on corporate misconceptions of social media http://tinyurl.com/cnrjz3

• About the Tweet – This tweet contains a clickable link http://tinyurl.com/cnrjz3 combined with a comment about the link.  In this case, the link leads us to a slideshow, but links can lead to anything on the web.  This is a great way to share pictures, video, articles and websites with fellow Tweeple aka Twitter People.