Here are the guidelines from the original post, Let’s tweet up.

• Everyone will log on to Twitter at the same time (day and time specified above).
• Simply tweet as you normally would, but follow each post with this hashtag: #rltu (Russian language Tweetup).
• You will need to run a search for this hashtag to follow all the tweets. You can do this simply through Twitter, but it’s best to use an application like TweetDeck, or HootSuite.
• The point is to practice Russian, so tweets should be in Russian.
• It’s a good idea to have a Russian/English dictionary open at the same time in case you need help. Multitran.ru is a good one. Translit.ru is another great resource – for typing in Russian and more.
• The Tweetup will last an hour.

Related post: We tweeted up

Personally, I really enjoyed it. Just like at the real-world Meetups, it’s good to have a time where you tell yourself, okay, for right now, it’s Russian only. I’ve gotten a lot of practice speaking lately, but writing is another story. You can’t fudge those case endings!! And it’s good spelling practice, too!

So I want to thank everyone who participated. I’ve already gotten some feedback, and it seems that everyone would be interested in doing it again, so I’m thinking this could be a monthly thing. So if you missed it this time around, stay tuned – you’ll get your chance!

Thanks, also to the tweeps who filled out the survey. If you participated in the tweetup, and haven’t filled out the survey yet, here’s the link.

And finally another big thank you to my fellow bloggers who helped me spread the word: Vicki Boykis, Russia Without Borders, and Russian Sphinx.

I was a little surprised, so I immediately googled, “What’s Ashton Kutcher doing in Russia?”

Photo by @aplusk (via twitpic)

As it turns out, he, along with other American Technology gurus, was participating in a State Department Delegation to Russia. To put it very briefly, the goal of the trip was to meet with Russian technology and community leaders to discuss how technology and social media can save the world.

For more information, see:

***And finally, see Ashton talk about the trip live on USTREAM on February 25, 2010 at 10:00AM PST!!

So here’s my question: Ashton, now that you’ve been to Russia and all, will you be participating in the Tweetup this Sunday??? (Hope to see you all there!!)

So it’s settled, I’m hosting my first Russian Tweetup on February 28th at 1:00pm EST/GMT-5 (1:00pm = 21:00 Moscow time) and you’re invited! (Click here if you need help with time zones.)

This is the first time I’m doing this, so it’s going to be a little experimental, but this is how it should work:

• Everyone will log onto Twitter on the day and time specified above.
• Simply tweet as you normally would, but follow each post with this hashtag: #rltu (Russian language Tweetup)
• You will need to run a search for this hashtag to follow all the tweets. You can do this simply through Twitter, but it’s best to use an application like TweetDeck, or HootSuite.
• The point is to practice Russian, so tweets should be in Russian.
• It’s a good idea to have a Russian/English dictionary open at the same time in case you need help. Multitran.ru is a good one.
• The Tweetup will last an hour.

Well, I think that’s about it! Let me know if you have any questions, and I’ll be tweetin’ with you soon!

Well, now that I’m on twitter, (follow me!) I wanted to write a simple post about twitter terminology, по-русски. But it’s turned out to be more difficult than I thought! There wasn’t much information out there, and there was a lot of disagreement amongst what I did find.

A simple Google search for твиттер didn’t turn up much. The Russian Wikipedia article was the most helpful. It used твитнул as the past tense of the verb, to tweet, and stated that a twitter user (tweep, in English, if ya didn’t know) is called a твиттерянин (or твиттеряне for plural).

Another good site I found was RuTwitter.com, which has a page called Что такое Twitter (which I like to translate as “What the heck is Twitter”). I didn’t get a lot of new terminology from this page, but it does have a list of Russian tweeps – I mean твиттеряне, if you’re looking for Russian-speakers to follow.

For more help, I turned to my own tweeps, where there was some disagreement. I think that’s understandable considering American newscasters are still chuckling to each other while trying to figure out what Twitter is, and where those Twitters go.

The general consensus for the word tweet, as a noun is simply the transliterated form, твит. (But I also saw запись and короткое сообщение.) One tweep recommended чирикать as the verb form, which literally translates as chirp or twitter.

Next, of course, the word, follow. My favorite is again the nice and simple, фолловить. But again, we have more options: следовать, следить, наблюдать, and добавить (to add).

It made me chuckle, but I even saw the term “фоллоу фрайдей”. (Doesn’t Russian have its own word for Friday?) And the website, Mир Tвиттерянин (World of Tweeps?) has a page called Tвиттинг.

So if you’re on Твиттер, please фолоувите меня! And if you have anything to add to this post, please comment! I am still a little confused about which are the best words to use! (Corrections also welcome.)

Also, a big спасибо to the tweeps who helped make this post possible: @StephenMJr, @kmaratte, @Imanotherstar, and @diman_dnk – Спасибо!