Want to connect with your family, friends, and favorite organizations online but not sure where to start? We've got you covered so you'll be able tell your retweets from your hashtags with this quick glossary of the most commonly used terms for the most popular social media platforms.

You can network or connect with friends on these platforms and even affect political and social change if you make the most of them! All of these platforms are free (at least for the basic level), so jump in and test out the waters.

Facebook

Want to connect with anyone you've ever met or worked with? Chances are you'll find most everyone on Facebook. You can use this social networking platform to find people, organizations, and even companies and connect with them. Facebook is free to join, though you're encouraged to use your real identity. Fake accounts are not allowed and can be removed.

Make sure you like the MOAA Facebook pages so you can stay connected to your favorite advocacy group, too!

• Friend - When you “friend” someone, you are sending them a request to connect with you on Facebook. If they accept your request, you'll be able to interact with them and see what they post to their profile - and vice versa.
• Timeline/wall - This is the part of your personal page people will see first if they are connected with you and check out your profile. This can vary based on your personal privacy settings, but usually it shows some basic information about you, your profile photo, Facebook groups you've joined, and the latest links, posts, and images you (or someone else) has shared on your page.
• Post - This is when you add a link, text, or an image or video to your profile. People you've allowed to connect with you can see this item, usually whether you've posted it to your own timeline or someone else's.
• Like - For each item you see on someone's wall or in your feed, you have a few options: Like, Comment, and Share. If you “like” something, it gives that post a thumbs-up, which is essentially a vote for good content. Facebook counts these and uses that number in part to decide what posts show up in others' timelines.
• Share - If you click “share” on a post, it will give you the ability to put that item on your own timeline or wall, add it the timeline of a friend, send it via private message, or post it on a group page you manage. This is a great way to spread content.
• Tagging - If you “tag” someone in a post or shared item, it means you've made a link to their timeline so they are notified of your post. You can do this in a browser with Facebook open by simply starting to type the person's name. If you're already connected on Facebook, their name will start to auto-populate and you can click on it to create the tag. This is a great way to make sure a specific person sees your post, which he or she might have otherwise missed.

Twitter

Twitter is a great place for sharing your thoughts and getting into discussions with people whether you know them or not! It's considered a “microblogging” platform because each post only allows 140 characters, including spaces. If you follow the right people on Twitter, you can get immediate updates on news, weather, current events - even natural disasters - all in 140 characters or less!

Accounts are free to create, and you can have as many accounts as you have email addresses. Companies, organizations, politicians, and celebrities are all on Twitter these days.

Because the platform is made for conversations and (nearly) instant feedback, you can keep up with calls to action from MOAA just by giving us a follow. Check out www.moaa.org/twitter to see all of our accounts.

• Tweet - A tweet is a message sent out by an account on Twitter consisting of 140 characters or less. This could include text, an image (which is turned into a shortened link), a link to an outside website, and hashtags.
• Follow/unfollow - To follow someone means to connect with them on Twitter so you can see each time they post. The majority of accounts (especially celebrities, companies, and organizations) are open and make this is easy to do. Some people set their account to private, in which case they need to approve your follow request before you can see what they post. If you unfollow someone, you'll stop seeing their posts in your timeline. Following doesn't need to be reciprocal. You could have someone follow you who you don't follow back.
• Timeline - Your timeline is the feed of tweets from the other accounts you follow. This can be as quiet or as crowded as you like; it just depends on the number of accounts you follow and how often those accounts send out tweets.
• Link shortener - Most people on Twitter use a link shortener so they can share long links to articles in a tweet without taking up too many characters. Twitter will do this automatically for photos uploaded to your tweet within the platform, though it will automatically cut off long links, while still leaving them clickable. This can pose problems for users who want to retweet content but don't have the original link. To shorten other URLs, you can use one of the many outside shortening services like Bit.ly, Goo.gl, Ow.ly, etcetera.
• Retweet/ RT - When you like a tweet someone else has posted you can share it from your own account, but it's customary to give the originator credit with a retweet or by manually preceding the copied tweet with “RT” and then a link to their profile using the @ symbol.
• @ - If this directly precedes a username (with no space), you are essentially creating a link back to that account. This is often done when you are retweeting something someone else has said, calling attention to a tweet, or replying to something a specific person tweeted.
• Hashtag/ # - A hashtag is a way of creating a conversation around a specific topic or subject. If you use the “#” symbol directly in front of a word or phrase (with no spaces or punctuation), that word or phrase will become a hyperlink. If clicked on, you can track a conversation between multiple accounts on the same subject. Campaigns and advocacy groups often use hashtags to keep track of a conversation on an issue they're monitoring, so they can chime in and see the activity surrounding an issue.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great way to network with colleagues and friends in a professional setting online. The basic version (which has more than enough features for the majority of users) is free to use, with additional features and upgrades available for a fee.

Because LinkedIn is focused on careers, recruiters and companies sometimes use the platform to find potential employees, so a complete profile is helpful on this site. Organizations like MOAA also use it to communicate career- or field-related advice to their group members online.

• Profile - Your profile is directly related to your career and professional achievements, so filling it in fully is helpful if you're trying to find a new job or connect with former colleagues. Most of the information on your profile would come from your résumé and is easy to add and update.
• Connections - Connections are people you've added to your network (and vice versa). These are like friends on Facebook. You can see articles they post and updates made to their profile.
• Updates - Every user on LinkedIn has a timeline-like feed of updates. These come directly from people you are connected with and can include blog posts, shared articles, comments made in a discussion, new connections a user has made, and even recent updates to their professional profiles.
• Interests - Interests on LinkedIn are usually educational or career-related, though not always. These can include companies you follow on the platform, organizations or nonprofits you like, and even private discussion groups and communities. These add depth and relevance to your professional interests.
• Announcements - Announcements are a feature of groups on LinkedIn. These can go out no more than once a week to group members and usually share important information, tips, or resources of interest to that particular group. These can only come from the manager of the group.