Social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instant Messaging and even SMS– all the cool kids are doing it and the rest of us are following along. Some services like Twitter and SMS limit the size of each message  so you need to be short and sweet. This has led to a whole new ‘language’ of phrases, acronyms and abbreviations that are commonly used all over the internet which are becoming more common in everyday life. Here is a list of 10 of the more common ones:

1. LOL: Laugh out loud: something you or someone else said that you find funny
2. ROFL: Rolling on floor laughing or LMAO: Laugh my arse off; Something you or someone else said is really funny. There are countless variations of this Tip: if there is an F included somewhere, it doesn’t stand for fridge.
3. FTW: For the win, use in praise of something. e.g., Belly Beyond FTW!
4. IMO: In my opinion or IMHO: in my honest/humble opinion
5. IYKWIM: If you know what I mean
6. OMG: Oh my god/goodness or OMFG
7. WTF: What the f-word
8. BTW: By the way
9. RT or PRT: Retweet or please retweet
10. Also worthy of a mention is the Twitter hashtag #fail – it’s not an acronym but represents the writers opinion of failure about something or someone. “Latest Hanover deal #fail” or “#epicfail (a failure of epic proportions)

The list is copied from here

You may recall I have touched on Twitter here on Mullies once already – see:
So what is this Twitter thing? YouTube knows.

It is a quick message writing service where you can publish notes that anyone can view. Kind of like a blog page but more like a 'status update'. Those who have used Facebook status updates will know what I mean.

Since that entry I have shown some of you Twitter and we discussed how many prominent people such as celebrities and sports stars are revealing information via Twitter – sometimes when they shouldn’t. As Stan said – it can be a bit like a celebrity gossip channel at times too! After all Oprah did a show about Twitter as well

Since the last post I have found an excellent source of information on Twitter for beginners. It is called the 12 days of Twitter and was write by a well respected online journo called Cali Lewis. Click on the link below to learn more about Twitter and how to use it:

12 Days of Twitter 

Oh and here is a link to Cali’s other work  - a video podcast reviewing gadgets and technology called GeekBrief.tv

You can use Twitter straight from the web at www.Twitter.com but there are lots of free programs you can use on your desktop instead.

My personal recommendation for the best way to use Twitter is Tweetdeck.
Tweetdeck can include Facebook status updates too so you can get more information in one place if you use both Twitter and Facebook like I do.

Of course part of the popularity of Twitter stems from the fact you can ‘Tweet” (which means write an update to your Twitter page) from your internet enabled mobile phone. That is what makes it popular with the celebrities and the ‘cool kids’. So one of the reasons I like Tweetdeck is that they have an application I can load on my iPhone as well. If you have a capable phone there will be a program for you too – or you can just pull up the Twitter page on your internet browser.

If you do sign up to Twitter make sure to follow me  - which is like ‘add me as a friend’. My user name is Noblejoker – find me here www.Twitter.com/Noblejoker And send me a message so I can follow you in return

So what is this new social media thing Twitter all about I hear you ask?

Well I have been on Twitter for about a year or so. It is a quick message writing service where you can publish notes that anyone can view. Kind of like a blog page but more like a 'status update'. Those who have used Facebook will know what I mean.

There has been a huge surge in popularity as more celebrity users come on board. Oprah did a special on it one day and the users doubled overnight or something.

Anyway - if you want a more comprehensive description of Twitter and how it works then it is off to YouTube which has loads of 'How-To' type videos about Twitter. The MakeUseOf blog has compiled a list of 7 good choices to start.

Check them out: Top 7 Twitter Tutorials on YouTube

If you do succumb to the Twitter phase then I have 2 suggestions.

1. Follow me @Noblejoker, and
2. Give Tweetdeck a try - it is the best desktop Twitter software I have used

I like Twitter and I follow quite a few people on it. I was explaining quickly to Janelle how it works and here’s what I wrote

Twitter is like Facebook status messages and Instant Messaging rolled into one
You can post what you are doing and see what others are doing

If you want to send a message particularly to someone's attention you type their name in preceded by the @
So to send to me or notify me particularly you type @noblejoker in your message
You can do that with anyone - you don't have to be 'following' them to send the tweet message.
I see though that you are following me and I am following you so whatever you write to anyone (@someone) or to no one I should see

You will also see people retweet
That is usually done as rt @name where the rt stands for retweet.
So lets say I write "something cool" and you want everyone following you to see it you then retweet my tweet like this:
”rt @noblejoker something cool”

Do you Twitter?if so send me a message and feel free to follow me

Matt aka Noblejoker on Twitter

Apparently we Aussies love the old Facebook – no surprise there. Seem to me that MySpace is mostly for the teens these days.

Source: World Map of Top Social Networks
Address : http://www.labnol.org/internet/world-map-of-top-social-networks/5049/

This world map courtesy Oxyweb should help you visualize the popularity of various social networks across different parts of the globe.

You may find this site interesting too

Social Networking Sites That Are Not Facebook or MySpace

Both articles from the excellent site/blog Digital Inspiration