using emoticons

Acronyms and emoticons are a vital part of the Internet and many have been around for a really long time! There are quite a bit more now than the basic A/S/L (age, sex, location), TTYL (talk to you later), and BRB (be right back). It seems each and every day a new one (for instance, most recently BAE) makes its way to Internet-land. What does BAE mean and should you use acronyms on social media? What about emoticons? All of your questions will be answered in this blog. Let’s take a fun little adventure through Internet-land and learn a bit about popular acronyms and emoticons. Are Acronyms Really That Important? The importance of acronyms is completely up to the business, social site, and followers. They can be very useful if you want to say a lot with as little characters as possible, but you need to make sure you use them correctly. You can always use regular, trendy acronyms for your posts or use some business-specific ones. However, if you use business acronyms, make sure your followers know what they mean. You don’t want to give them a lot of jargon and confuse them! Acronyms are a great way to not only save on character length, but can help your followers read through posts quicker, which many people love. They are also a great way to connect with an audience by using lingo they are used to. How Can You Use Them? You can use acronyms in a variety of ways. When it comes to social media, you should lean more towards using common and trendy acronyms instead of business ones. However, you don’t have to shy away from using business acronyms like CTA (call to action) in your posts. Just make sure your audience knows your business acronyms! You should also make sure your audience knows the others, as well. As you’ll see later in this blog, not everyone knows the most popular acronyms such as BAE. What Are Some Acronyms You Should Know? Now that you know that acronyms are totally cool to use on social media, you might be wondering about a few of the more popular ones out there. I’m compiling a list just for you, and also came across an amazing acronym list from Buffer. If you see something online and just can’t figure out what it means, head on over the Buffer’s guide and search! Let’s take a look at some of the top acronyms you are likely to come across on social media. IG – Instagram. This is pretty basic and something that you definitely need to know if you use or plan on using Instagram. When you refer to people following your Instagram account, just simply use IG instead! Easy, right? MT – Modified Tweet. Have you seen a few of these floating around and are a little confused? It simply means the tweet has been modified from what it originally said. This is important because if you retweet a client, and then make changes, you need to make sure people know. People can get pretty upset if you change their tweet and don’t include MT. AMA – Ask Me Anything. AMAs are trending right now. It is simply where you hold an online question and answer session and have people ask anything. This is really hot with popular celebrities and authors, and is usually held over on Reddit.  SMH – Shake My Head. You might see this if someone is upset or confused. An example is when Benedict Cumberbatch was announced as Dr. Strange – many fans tweeted their displeasure followed by SMH. If someone says this to you about your service or product, it’s time to do some reputation management!  IMO or IMHO – In My Opinion or In My Humble Opinion. If you’re stating an opinion online, simply add IMO or IMHO to your update! Sometimes this is used in a sassy manner, but other times, it is a great way to ensure people know it is your opinion, but not a solid fact. HBD – Happy Birthday. Are you planning on saying, “Happy Birthday” to your clients online? A quick, easy way to do this is simply to tweet “HBD” their way! It doesn’t seem super personal, but is rather common to see whether a business is saying it or a friend. BAE – Before Anything Else. I have to admit, I didn’t know what this meant when it first became popular. If you’re seeing people referring to someone or something as bae (or BAE), this is what it means. But don’t worry, you aren’t the only one who is behind on the acronym times, Johnny Depp is too! DFTBA – Don’t Forget to be Awesome. Thanks to the Green brothers, we have an awesome acronym and phrase that is sure to make people smile. DFTBA means “Don’t Forget to Be Awesome,” reminding people that they should, well, always be awesome This is a great reminder, IMO (see what I did there?). Add this to your tweets to connect with a younger audience, and, of course, remind people that they shouldn’t forget to be awesome! F2F – Face to Face. This is not only an acronym that is popular on social media, but within businesses as well. This simply refers to having a meeting or seeing another person face to face instead of talking through emails, chats, or texts. FTW – For the Win. Did your company do something awesome? Then tweet about it and add FTW! This adds a fun little twist to exciting posts and sends a mental image of you doing a Mario leap in celebration.  An Emoticon Can Say More Than You Think Now that we’ve discussed a few of the trendy acronyms online let’s look at another super trendy thing – emoticons! Emoticons started “way” back in 1982 when someone stated that “:-)” become a joke marker. From there we’ve moved on to a wide variety of emoticons from the rock star … Read more