Twitter

## Key Terms-

**Twitter**: A social network used to post short posts called "tweets" where you can also follow other people and view what they post and also many trending topics worldwide.

**Tweet**: Every update you post to your followers on Twitter is called a tweet.

**DM**: A "DM," or "direct message," is a private message between two Twitter users.

**Retweet**: When you see “Retweet” in front of a tweet, it means the person found the content valuable enough to share with their followers. It is to repost what another user has posted to their Twitter.

**Like**: Similar to other sites you can like a post. You can look at the persons likes on their page.

**Follow:** Subscribing to another user's content.

**Follow Back:** Subscribe to another user's content that has recently followed you.

**Hashtag:** A way to tag a keyword/subject in order to emphasis its meaning and make it more easily searchable by other users. It is the word or phrase following the "#" symbol.

**Trending topics:** A word, phrase, or topic that is mentioned at a greater rate than others is said to be a "trending topic". Trending topics become popular either through a concerted effort by users or because of an event that prompts people to talk about a specific topic.

**Verified accounts:** Twitter launched their 'Verified Accounts' program. Twitter stated that an account with a verification badge indicates "we've been in contact with the person or entity the account is representing and verified that it is approved. Verified status allows access to some features unavailable to other users, such as only seeing mentions from other verified accounts.

**Polls:** In 2015, Twitter began to roll out the ability to attach poll questions to tweets. Polls are open for up to 7 days, and voters are not personally identified.

**Streaming video:** In 2016, Twitter began to place a larger focus on live streaming video programming, hosting various events including streams of the Republican and Democratic conventions during the U.S. presidential campaign

**Block:** If you block a another twitter account, that account will not be able to follow you and you will not receive notification if they mention you in a tweet.

**Mention:** You can mention other accounts in your tweets by including the @ sign followed directly by their username.

## History:

March 21, 2006 Jack Dorsey posted first "tweet", posting "just setting up my twttr". Two weeks prior Dorsey was building sample sites in which users could post short messages of 140 characters or less, referred to as "tweets".

Twitter was initially used by only a select few and suffered a lot of service outages. However after celebrities and CEOs started to create twitter account and began posting their own tweets, twitter rapidly spread and started to be used more frequently.

By 2010 Twitter had more than 105 million users who combined tweeted over 55 million times a day.

## Analysis -

**What is it's purpose? Who uses it? Why? Who endorses Twitter? Why?**

Twitter is a website and app that is known to allow users to blog their emotions, daily activities, and thoughts. It has also developed as a means of mass communication or advertisements, as done by companies and celebrities.

The "tweets" that are posted generally do not contain proper grammar or should be viewed as a reliable source of information, however Twitter has developed a means to obtain actual News and Media sources. You don't have to be following someone in order to view, retweet from their homepage, or favorite their content. This process ends up in a continuous "scroll", where the ongoing cycle of who sees your posts and which posts you view is shown in a feed that you scroll through.

The people that use it are mainly young adults, but also for business promoting, and celebrities. The purpose is to be able to express yourself and also connect with others who share similar views as you that you can follow from all over the world.

**Who benefits by using Twitter/How?**

Celebrities, the media, executives, industry influencers/public figures, authors, politicians, world leaders, big corporations and anyone else using Twitter as a means to communicate information to an intended audience.

Twitter can be used for multiple reasons, and one can benefit by keeping up to date with the news, the media, or personal content.

**What drawbacks accompany using Twitter?**

Twitter can be used by anyone and not everyone will agree with what everyone else has to say, especially when it is online. In addition not everything you read online is entirely correct, and while Twitter is a way to post thoughts in addition to facts, it isn't always necessarily reliable.

## How to create a Twitter Account:

1. Go to http://twitter.com and find the sign up box, or go directly to https://twitter.com/signup.
2. Enter your full name, phone number or email address, date of birth, and a password.
3. Click Sign up for Twitter.
4. In order to verify your phone number, an SMS text message with a code will be sent to your phone.
5. Once you've clicked Sign up for Twitter, you can select a username (usernames are unique identifiers on Twitter) — type your own or choose one we've suggested. We'll tell you if the username you want is available.
6. Double-check your name, phone number, password, and username.
7. Click Create my account.

## Fun Facts about Twitter:

* Twitter was almost called “Friendstalker.”
* Twitter did not invent the hashtag.
* Chris Messina ( a former google designer) first proposed that Twitter users use a hashtag to create "groups" back in 2007.
* Twitter is available in more than 25 languages, including right-to-left languages like Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu.
* 340 million tweets are sent each and every day.
* Twitter is now worth more than $11 billion.

## Sample

https://twitter.com/ChicoStatepart2

https://twitter.com/wildcat\_chico

## Sources

http://journals.sagepub.com.mantis.csuchico.edu/doi/abs/10.1177/0038038511422553

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/34-twitter-terms-defined-list

https://www.biography.com/people/jack-dorsey-578280

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/272803

http://www.adweek.com/digital/50-twitter-fun-facts/

http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-messina-talks-about-inventing-the-hashtag-on-twitter-2013-11

https://help.twitter.com/en/create-twitter-account

## Pictures

* This picture to the right represents how far a tweet from one user to another can go.

* The picture below the picture to the right depicts an image of the Twitter logo.