Twitter, online microblogging service that distributes short messages of no more than 280 characters—called tweets—and that

was influential in shaping politics and culture in the early 21st century. A user types a tweet and sends it to Twitter’s server,
which relays it to a list of other users (known as followers) who have signed up to receive the sender’s messages. In addition,
users can elect to track specific topics by clicking on hashtags (e.g., #movies), creating a dialogue of sorts and pushing the
number of followers in a given Twitter feed into the millions.

Twitter is an online social networking tool in which users post 280 character updates of what is going on in their lives along with
links to things they think are topical, interesting, funny, or of benefit to their followers. As of January 2020, Twitter had
approximately 4 million active Australian users.

Twitter terminology
To use Twitter strategically, you need to understand the key Twitter terminology.

Followers

Subscribing to a Twitter account is called “following". To start following, click the follow button next to the user name or on their
profile page to see their tweets as soon as they post something new. Anyone on Twitter can follow or unfollow anyone else at
any time, with the exception of blocked accounts (“following” being essentially what “friending” or “liking” is on other social
media sites).

Mentions

Mentioning other users in your tweet by including the @ sign followed directly by their username is called a “mention.” It also
refers to tweets in which your @username was included.

Tweets and retweets

When you post something, it’s a tweet. When you repost something from another user, it’s a retweet or RT. Trending topics, or
TT, are topics discussed by many users at a given time, usually by using a hashtag. The list of what topics are trending in your
region is on the left hand side of the Twitter feed, and you can click on the trending topic to catch up on the conversations.

Hashtags

A hashtag is any word or phrase immediately preceded by the # symbol. When you click on or search on a hashtag, you'll see
other tweets containing the same keyword or topic. Hashtags are used for both non-time specific grouping of tweets, such as
#politas for political tweets in Tasmania, and for critical time specific events such as emergencies, disasters, breaking news
and events such as #AFLfinal.

Like

Twitter has a heart shape ‘Like’ button you clicking on to like a tweet. Liking is a great way to recognise someone for sharing
your content, or to let them know you are seeing, and liking, what they are posting. The reply, retweet, like and more buttons
are all located underneath the tweets in your Twitter feed.

Polls

Twitter enables polling in your tweet. The polls last for 24 hours and when you start composing a new tweet, the option to add a
poll is in the draft under polls. Polls will remain live for 24 hours. After the 24-hour voting period is up, everyone who
participated will get a push notification informing them of the final result. Voting is anonymous, and any user can vote on any
poll.

Lists

From your own account, you can create a group list of other Twitter users by topic or interest (e.g., a list of friends, co-workers,
celebrities, athletes). Twitter lists also contain a timeline of Tweets from the specific users that were added to the list, offering
you a way to follow individual accounts as a group on Twitter.

Direct Messages

The messages tab on Twitter lets people who follow you, who you also follow, to send you a direct message. This can be
convenient for private or offline conversations, or exchange of sensitive information. Unfortunately, the direct message tab is
often where spam and viruses come through, so before opening any message, especially with headings like 'I saw this photo of
you' 'you're not going to believe what they are saying about you' etc just delete. If you don't know the sender, or you have any
doubts, delete.