‎"Social Permittivity" is a measure of resistance to viral propagation induced by the general availability of information…

EXAMPLE: While everyone in a city may know of an impending blizzard, few people are "tweeting" it. The information is so available through a "single propagation step", no chaining is initiated. Thus, a HIGH "Social Permittivity" can moderate the impact of social marketing efforts.

The uncanny valley is a hypothesis in the field of robotics and 3D computer animation, which holds that when human replicas look and act almost, but not perfectly, like actual human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The "valley" in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot's human likeness.



TOGO Media has found that the "Uncanny Valley" phenomenon can also be used to predict certain reactions and interactions with potentially viral content destined for social media.

Definition: The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

A reply is any update posted by clicking the "Reply" button on another Tweet

People say lots of things on Twitter, and sometimes you want to say something back. Your reply will always begin with @username (insert username of the person you are replying to). Anyone Tweet that is a reply to you will show up in your @Mentions tab on your homepage.

A computational procedure for solving a problem in a finite number of steps. Used frequently on Twitter to determine most popular Tweets and trending topics.

An Application Programming Interface. Contains all Twitter data and is used to build applications that access Twitter much like our website does.

A third-party application is a product created by a company other than Twitter and used to access Tweets and other Twitter data.

The personal image uploaded to your Twitter profile in the Settings tab of your account.

A short personal description used to define who you are on Twitter.

A bug is an internal error in our site code and functionality. We find and fix them all the time. (Nobody's perfect.) If you see one, point it out to @support by sending us a message. See also Known Issue.

Twitter buttons are available in the Goodies tab of your account, and are used to link to Twitter from other webpages. See also Widgets.

A collection of stored data on your computer containing information that may be required in the future and can be accessed rapidly.

Twitter's annual official developer conference. First held in 2010 in San Francisco.

The Applications tab in your Twitter settings shows all third party websites and applications to which you've granted access your public Twitter profile. Revoke access at any time.

A way to remove your profile from Twitter. Information on removed profiles remains tied in our system for 30 days.

Engineers who don't work for Twitter, but who use Twitter's open-source API to build third-party applications.

Also called a DM and most recently called simply a "message," these Tweets are private between only the sender and recipient. Tweets become DMs when they begin with "d username" to specify who the message is for.

See "Direct Message" above.

Preferences set by Twitter users to regulate notifications via email about events on your account, such as new followers and new direct messages.

To favorite a Tweet means to mark it as one of your favorites by clicking the yellow star next to the message. You can also favorite via SMS.

#FF stands for "Follow Friday." Twitter users often suggest who others should follow on Fridays by tweeting with the hashtag #FF.

The Find People tab (to find people) is Twitter's search feature used to locate friends on the site.

To follow someone on Twitter means to subscribe to their Tweets or updates on the site.

The numbers that reflect how many people you follow, and how many people follow you. Found on your Twitter Profile.

Twitter has imposed reasonable limits to help prevent system strain and limit abuse. If you hit a technical limit, we’ll tell you by showing an error message in your browser when you try to perform an action. You can find information on our current Update, DM, and API Requests on this About Twitter Limits help page.

Technical Follow Limits

We do not limit the number of people who can follow you, but we have put limits on how many other accounts you can follow.

Every account can follow 2,000 users total. Once you’ve followed 2,000 users, there are limits to the number of additional users you can follow. This number is different for each account and is based on your ratio of followers to following; this ratio is not published. Follow limits cannot be lifted by Twitter and everyone is subject to follow limits, even high profile and API accounts.

In addition to this account-based limit, every Twitter account is technically unable to follow more than 1,000 users per day. Please note that this is just a technical limit to prevent egregious abuse from spam accounts. Accounts are also prohibited from aggressively following other users. Our Follow Limits and Best Practices Page has more information on Twitter’s following rules.

If I hit a limit, what should I do?

If you've reached the account-based follow limit (after you've followed 2,000 users), you’ll need to wait until you have more followers before you can follow additional users. Follow limits are system-wide and Support cannot remove or adjust your follow limits.

If you want to just follow a few more accounts and are unable because of your account-based follow limit, you can unfollow a few accounts you're currently following. Please note, however, that regularly following and unfollowing lots of accounts is a violation of the Twitter Rules and can result in account suspension.

A follower is another Twitter user who has followed you.

Your following number reflects the quantity of other Twitter users you have chosen to follow on the site.

The use of location data in Tweets to tell us where you are in real time. Is also called "Tweet With Your Location."

Sites that promise to get you more followers if you provide your username and password. After signing up, these sites send spam from your account. Don't use them.

A tab at the bottom of your Twitter homepage containing links to widgets, buttons, and other nifty third-party website integration tools. http://twitter.com/goodies

See "Hacking" below.

Gaining unauthorized access to an account via phishing, password guessing, or session stealing. Usually this is followed by unauthorized posts from the account. Users often use the word "hacking" for many things that are not hacking.

A user's "Twitter handle" is the username they have selected and the accompanying URL, like so: http://twitter.com/{username or "Handle"}.

The # symbol is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. Was created organically by Twitter users.

A request for help filed to our Support team via links in relevant articles on help.twitter.com.

A real-time list of Tweets from those you follow. Appears on your Twitter home page.

Floating messages about other Twitter users. They appear when hovering over a username on Twitter, or on other sites on the web.

To pretend to be someone on the internet that you are not. Impersonation that is intended to deceive is prohibited under the Twitter Rules. Parody accounts are allowed.

An error within our site that our engineers know about and are currently working to fix.

To be included in another Twitter user's list. Listed numbers and details appear in the statistics at the top of your profile.

Curated groups of other Twitter users. Used to tie specific individuals into a group on your Twitter account. Displayed on the right side menu of your homepage.

The act of signing in to one's Twitter account on www.twitter.com or any third party application.

Mentioning another user in your Tweet by including the @ sign followed directly by their username is called a "mention". Also refers to Tweets in which your username was included.

Twitter's website tailored to fit your mobile device. Visit it at mobile.twitter.com.

A method to allow a user to grant a 3rd party access to their account without giving up their password.

"OH" most often means "Overheard" in Tweets. Used as a way to quote funny things people overhear.

Users sometimes refer to this page as the "Fail Whale" page. The "Twitter is over capacity" message and a whale image shows up when our site is having trouble keeping up with traffic.

To spoof or to make fun of something in jest. Twitter users are allowed to create parody Twitter accounts, as well as commentary and fan accounts.

Tricking a user to give up their username and password. This can happen by sending the user to fake login page, a page promising to get you more followers, or just simply asking for the username and password via a DM or email.

A Twitter page displaying information about a user, as well as all the Tweets they have posted from their account.

Tweets that selected businesses have paid to promote at the top of search results on Twitter.

Twitter accounts are public by default. Choosing to protect your account means that your Tweets will only be seen by approved followers and will not appear in search.

A search performed to retrieve information from a database.

A name that can be different from your username and is used to locate you on Twitter. Must be 20-characters or fewer.

A Tweet posted in reply to another user's message, usually posted by clicking the "reply" button next to their Tweet in your timeline. Always begins with @username.

The act of bringing a deactivated account back to life on Twitter. It's alive!!

A Tweet by another user, forwarded to you by someone you follow. Often used to spread news or share valuable findings on Twitter.

To retweet, retweeting, retweeted. The act of forwarding another user's Tweet to all of your followers.

An error message when something on our site is not working. (Hint: try refreshing the page to make him go away.)

Most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication. A family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries or news headlines—in a standardized format.

Abbreviated version of "retweet." Placed before the retweeted text when users manually retweet a message. See also Retweet.

A digital recording (video) of a computer screen's output.

An image captured on your computer or phone displaying your screen's output. Often used to share information with Twitter support agents while troubleshooting.

A box on your Twitter homepage that allows you to search all public Tweets for keywords, usernames, hashtags, or subject. Searches can also be performed at search.twitter.com.

A five-digit phone number used to send and receive Tweets via text message.

Hours in which all mobile Twitter updates will cease to be delivered to your phone. Can be set up through your Settings tab.

Short Message Service (SMS) is most commonly known as text messaging. Most messages are a maximum of 140 characters.

Unwanted messaging or following on Twitter. We work hard to eliminate it.

The act of being prevented from using Twitter due to breach of our Terms of Service.

When using Twitter via SMS, these commands allow you to access most Twitter features with simple text keywords.

A third-party application is a product created by a company other than Twitter and used to access Tweets and other Twitter data.

A real-time list of Tweets on Twitter. See also Home Timeline.

A note displaying when a Tweet was posted to Twitter. Can be found in grey text directly below any Tweet. Is also a link to that Tweet's own URL.

Tweets determined by a Twitter algorithm to be the most popular or resonant on Twitter at any given time.

A subject algorithmically determined to be one of the most popular on Twitter at the moment.

A message posted via Twitter containing 140 characters or fewer.

Tweet, Tweeting, Tweeted. The act of posting a message, often called a "Tweet", on Twitter.

A button anyone can add to their website. Clicking this button allows Twitter users to post a Tweet with a link to that site.

An account holder on Twitter who posts and reads Tweets. Also known as Twitterers.

An information network made up of 140-character messages from all over the world.

An account holder on Twitter who posts and reads Tweets. Also known as Tweeters.

To cease following another Twitter user. Their Tweets no longer show up in your home timeline.

A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a web address that points to a unique page on the internet.

URL shorteners are used to turn long URLs into shorter URLs. Shortening services can be found online.

Also known as a Twitter handle. Must be unique and contain fewer than 15 characters. Is used to identify you on Twitter for replies and mentions.

A process whereby a user's Twitter account is stamped to show that a legitimate source is authoring the account's Tweets. Sometimes used for accounts who experience identity confusion on Twitter.

A type of account that is allowed to go beyond the restrictions imposed by Twitter. This could be follower limits, posts, API access, etc.

A bit of code that can be placed anywhere on the web. Updates regularly with one's Twitter updates in real time.