Twitter is a social service on the Internet that allows users to disseminate information in real time. The most notable feature of twitter used to be its limiting of tweets to 140 characters, but in September 2017 this was increased to 280 characters. The only requirement 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 maximum of 280 characters can be written in a tweet. Hyperlinks can be used in tweets, therefore Twitter users can post photos, videos and links directly in tweets. If a tweet has been posted, it will be listed in real time on the NewsFeed with the followers of the account. If the followers like the tweet, it is usually shared using a retweet.
The principle
The communication principle between Twitter users is based on following other Twitter users. If you find a Twitter account that provides interesting information, you can follow this account. The "followed person" does not necessarily have to follow back.
The number of followers a person or account has can be classified as a key figure for the familiarity or trustworthiness of an account. The more followers an account has, the more trustworthy is the source of the information that was tweeted. Conversely, the tracked accounts are referred to as followings.
Among other things, twitter users can also send private messages that can only be read by addressees and not by their followers. For privacy reasons, accounts can be managed as protected, i. e. not open to the public. Only the followers can see the contributions coming from a protected account.
@ sign
In order to increase communication between users, Twitter enables the dialogue between Twitter users among themselves. You can use the @ sign to tweet directly to an account.
#Hashtags
The hashtags setting has a special meaning on Twitter. The subject of the information content is highlighted. If a tweet is published on the topic of SEO, the hashtag SEO (#SEO) can be used to clarify the topic. If a hash tag topic receives special attention within a country or worldwide, it is treated as a trending topic. Trending Topics are displayed on the Twitter home page and in the profile overviews of each account.
Technology
Twitter is based on the programming language Scala and uses a framework known as Bootstrap for the user interface. Bootstrap is an open source project and has been released to the public for further development. The integration of Twitter into web pages and applications is easily possible via Twitter API.
Twitter Services
In order to facilitate the handling of Twitter, many services are offered on the Internet that allow, for example, the merging of several Twitter accounts or automated replies. The best-known Twitter clients include Twitterrific, HootSuite, TweetDeck and Echofon.
Company twitter
Twitter is also increasingly being used in companies as a communication tool. Examples have shown that Twitter is an excellent support and information channel between companies and customers, as the response times are real-time and companies can react very quickly to support requests
Significance for SEO
The Twitter component plays an important role in the discussion about social signals in search engine optimization, as they are real user signals. It can also be used to increase the number of visitors to a website, as Twitter can be used as an additional channel to spread information. You can control social signals via Twitter using the web-based web analytics tool Fanpage Karma. It is not yet certain whether twitter usage has a direct impact on search engine rankings.