Twitter- A Powerful Network for Everyone.

Microblogging is the act of posting brief, frequent pieces of digital content on a blog or social-media website.  This can vary from photos and videos, to simple written text and can be posted on a variety of platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Storify and even Instagram.  Twitter is currently the best-known and most-used microblogging site with 307 million active users.  As an avid Twitter user, I am continually amazed with its ability to connect users and create online conversation about a smörgåsbord of topics.


With the speed of the internet and newer technologies developing every day, the everyday person has the ability to capture the news and report it.  This is one of the many things I love about Twitter, it provides the opportunity for anyone to publish their thoughts and opinions on any event as it is happening, whether it be local or international.  Throughout my time using Twitter, there have been many events that I have been able to live-tweet and involve myself in online conversation; the most obvious of these was the Paris attacks on 14th November 2015.  Although I did not know all the specific details of the tragedy straight away, I was able to follow the story through the hashtag #ParisAttacks, Tweet my condolences, contribute to the conversation and update my Twitter when I knew more details.  Had I been writing an article for a print newspaper, I would have had to wait until all details had been released and the story wouldn't have been published until the next day. Twitter allows for immediate news publishing and gathering, something which traditional forms of news cannot offer.

An example of one of my Tweets during the Paris attacks.

Hashtags (#) on Twitter are used before a key word in order to categorise Tweets and help other users find them more easily in a Twitter search.  I found this aspect particularly useful when I wanted to look more into current affairs or for reading other users' opinions on certain topics.  Using hashtags is a great way of encouraging user engagement and online conversation, something which I have found myself doing over the course of my time on Twitter.  I use hashtags in my Tweets to ensure they reach a wider audience than just my followers, for example, in tweets promoting latest blog posts, I like to hashtag key words so other users can easily find the link and read my post if it is a topic they are interested in.

An example of my use of Hashtags in a Tweet promoting my blog.

Hashtags are also very useful for contributing to trending conversations where users interact with each other to discuss a particular topic.  It has been an interesting experiment to see that I receive more 'favourites' and 'retweets' on my Tweets when I include hash tags than when I don't.  This has taught my that hashtags are a powerful tool which allow a wider audience to view my thoughts, opinions and self promotion such as tweeting links to my blog.

Example of a 'hashtagged' tweet receiving attention.

Although a relatively new feature on Twitter, polls are an excellent way to engage with your followers to learn their opinions on certain topics.  However, I do believe that this also has downfalls for users who do not have a very wide presence on as followers may be fewer and less likely to raise their views.  This means that getting a broad insight into followers opinions might be difficult.  I experienced this difficulty when I created a poll about whether news stories are driven by newspapers or consumer demand;  I received one answer which meant I could not use this information to prove any points.  I feel that polls are an excellent aspect of microblogging as it does encourage discussion and engagement, however I do feel it is most effective in users who have a high amount of active followers.

Example of my poll on Twitter.

Microblogging on Twitter is also a great way to promote your other blogging and microblogging platforms such as Blogger and Storify.  I found that my blog post evoked more attention when I tweeted a link, than if I had not.  This is a useful way of keeping your followers up to date with other platforms resulting in a relationship being formed because they know to check back for regular updates.  My tweets were also occasionally retweeted by other users, enabling their followers to then view my link.  This was a fantastic way of widening the readership of my blog posts.

Example of favourites and retweets on my tweet promoting my latest blog post.

Overall, I feel that microblogs give a voice to the portion of society that would otherwise be drowned out by dominating media outlets such as newspapers and news websites.  Although the 140 character limit can sometimes be a hindrance, the point to microblogging is that the posts are kept short and sweet.  Twitter users would much prefer to read short, snappy posts as opposed to lengthier articles because this way, everyone can keep up to date with current affairs without being inundated with too much information.

My experience in using Twitter has taught me that Microblogging is an incredibly helpful tool, not only for individual users but for businesses too.  Today, there is so much information and news being produced all over the world that it is physically impossible to read the full details for every single one.  Twitter and other microblogging sites are perfect for locating the important details that you want to read, in short, concise and instantaneous updates.

Ellie Silvey.