Twitter (origin: to tweet – to Twitter) is a social service on the Internet that allows the user to disseminate information in real-time. The special feature is that only 140 characters can be used. The prerequisite for using Twitter is the creation of a Twitter account. Twitter is well-known among social services and is available free of charge.
Tweets
Twitter contains small pieces of information called tweets. A tweet can contain a maximum of 140 characters. With the ability to include hyperlinks in tweets, Twitter users can post photos, videos, and links to directly in tweets. When a tweet is posted, it’s shared with the account’s followers in the NewsFeed in real time. If the followers like the tweet, it is usually shared by means of a retweet.
The principle
The principle of communication between Twitter users is based on following or subscribing to other Twitter users. If you find a Twitter account that is posting interesting information, you can track what it has posted (tweeted). “The pursued” does not necessarily have to follow back.
The followers are called followers. The number of followers can be classified as a measure of the notoriety or trustworthiness of an account. The more followers an account has, the more trustworthy the source of the information that was tweeted. Conversely, the following accounts are referred to as followings.
Among other things, private messages are offered, which can only be read by the addressee and not by his followers. For privacy reasons, accounts can be kept protected, i.e. not public. Only the followers see the posts that come from a protected account.
@-Sign
In order to strengthen communication between users, the Twitter service enabled dialogue between Twitter users themselves. The @ sign can be used to specifically address an account.
The hashtag setting has a special meaning on Twitter. The topic that affects the information content is emphasized. If a tweet is published on the topic of SEO, the hashtag SEO (#SEO) will be mentioned at the end of the tweet to clarify the topic in question. If a hashtag topic receives special attention within a country or worldwide, it is traded as a trending topic. Trending topics appear on the Twitter home page and in each account’s profile summaries.
Technology
Twitter is based on the Scala programming language and uses a framework known as Bootstrap for the application interface. Bootstrap is an open-source project and is open to the general public for further development. The integration of Twitter into websites and applications is easily possible via the Twitter API.
Twitter Services
In order to make Twitter easier to use, many services are offered on the Internet which, for example, enable multiple Twitter accounts to be merged or automated replies to be provided. The best-known so-called Twitter clients include Twitterrific, HootSuite, TweetDeck and Echofon.
Twitter in the company
Twitter is also increasingly used in companies as a communication tool. Examples have shown that Twitter is an excellent support and information channel between companies and customers since the reactions are real-time and companies can respond very quickly to support requests, for example.
Importance for SEO
The Twitter component plays a major role in the discussion about social signals in search engine optimization since they are real user signals. In addition, it can be used to increase the number of visitors to a website, since Twitter can spread information as an additional channel. Controlling the social signals via Twitter can be carried out using the web-based web analytics tool Fanpage Karma. A direct effect of Twitter use on search engine rankings has not been traced so far.