Confused. How to: Twittering ?

[Samana Cay]

My friend just made a Twitter account while I was at their house and we were having slight issues understanding some things.

What are all of the symbols and meanings behind Twitter?
For example:
What does the # sign mean? As in the popular "#fact"

[Spilt F]

It's Tweet.

#<channel name> is for joining channels.
@<name> sends a message to that user.

[Jeff P]

@Username sends a tweet to that person.

#someword is used to standardize common tweets, like #musicmonday, etc. They're used to spot current trends, easily identifying what is popular on Twitter at the moment.

[x_leen]

ahw, it's real simple, hun.

in your status or "tweet"
when you write @USERNAMEHERE ..
it messages the person.

# means your way of tagging it.
right now "#Fact" means you tage #fact and then write something true

of to your right panel with the options like
"@YOURUSERNAME"
if you click that button it will show you people who have written to or about you (:

hope i helped!

xo, Kat!