Twitter is a fantastic platform for businesses and brands to expand their growth opportunities while also staying in touch with their customers. This microblogging site has taken off since its launch, giving social networking and online marketing a new direction. Here are 15 interesting facts about Twitter. After you’ve finished reading about these fascinating facts, you might want to tweet a few of them because they’re that good.
1. Every minute, approximately 350,000 Tweets are sent out. (Source)
On Twitter, an average of 350,000 new tweets are posted every minute. This translates to over 500 million tweets per day – a lot of text! While this may appear to be a large number, Facebook receives an average of 3 million new posts per minute. That’s nearly ten times the number of people who use Twitter.
2. “FriendStalker”, “Vibrate” and “Twitch” were some of the original name suggestions before finalizing “Twitter” which meant “The light chirping sound made by certain birds which may be agitation, excitement or flutter.”
While it is true that you can “stalk” friends and celebrities on Twitter by scrolling through their posts and seeing what they’ve been up to, the name “FriendStalker” could have been a completely different brand had it won. Evan Williams, one of the co-founders of Twitter, suggested the name. Another co-founder, Noah Glass, later began searching a dictionary for words that sounded similar to “Twitch” and discovered Twitter – “The light chirping sound made by certain birds which may be agitation, excitement or flutter.”
3. According to the Vatican, following the Pope’s Twitter Feed could reduce the amount of time one spends in purgatory, where one’s sins are weighed after death. (Source)
The next fact on the list of interesting facts about Twitter is quite strange but apparently very true. According to the Vatican and the Catholic Church, there are many things you can do to shorten your time in purgatory and improve your life. This includes things like assisting others, donating to the poor, and praying on a daily basis. However, the Vatican announced those who followed the Pope’s Twitter feed during World Youth Day 2013 could reduce the amount of time you spend in purgatory – where your sins would be weighed after death (according to Catholic beliefs) before you hopefully make your way to heaven.
4. Twitter user, Chris Messina used the ‘Hashtags’ for the first time on Twitter in 2007 to isolate groups of messages around a certain topic. (Source)
Chris Messina is the man who is credited with bringing the famous hashtag into the digital world to isolate groups of messages around a certain topic. . Hashtags are used to connect users to a specific theme or topic, and they’re frequently used at events and conferences to help people find posts about the same thing. Hashtags have now made their way into Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and advertising materials all over the world, as any social media user knows.
Chris Messina thought that adding a symbol like # with a word or phrase could: “create an instant channel that anybody can search, join and participate in.” He wrote a 2,000-word proposal for this idea and took it to: Biz Stone, one of the Twitter co-founders at the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. It was dismissed for being too nerdy. However, the idea first became quite popular during San Diego Wildfires in 2007 and was later adopted by twitter in 2008-09.
5. All tweets were previously archived by the Library of Congress.
In 2010, the Library of Congress in the United States began archiving all tweets. However, in 2017, the company announced that it would begin archiving tweets more selectively. Part of the reason for this decision was an increase in the number of tweets being sent out. As a result, the Library decided to keep only a few tweets for the sake of the American people’s interest and benefit.
6. Barack Obama is the person with the most Twitter followers. (As of Feb 2022),
Another interesting fact about Twitter is that Barack Obama, the former President of the United States of America, has 129.8 million followers, making him the most followed person on the platform. He has the most Twitter followers, with 130.6 Million followed by Justin Bieber with 114.2 million and Katy Perry with 108.7 million. The top 5 most followed Twitter accounts belong to Barack Obama, Justin Beiber, Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Christiano Ronaldo. (Followers as of Feb 2022)
7. Sweden let its citizens manage the country’s official account for a day until 2018.
One of the interesting facts about Twitter is that every other week, a new swede takes over the official account in Sweden. Yes, that is correct. Every week since 2011, the Swedish government has given the keys to the official Twitter handle to any citizen. The goal was to depict the country as seen through the eyes of different citizens. This tradition has, however, been discontinued because of online harassment.
8. Twitter displayed a whale being lifted out of the water to safety by eight blue twitter-birds when their servers were overloaded.
In 2007, Twitter began to experience rapid growth, and its communications and media team took advantage of well-attended conferences and events to increase usage and sign up new users. When servers were overloaded, Twitter displayed an illustration featuring a whale being lifted out of the water to safety by eight blue twitter-birds. This page went viral amongst Twitter users who dubbed it as the “Fail Whale.”
9. It was “Twttr” at first, not “Twitter.”
Another fascinating fact about Twitter is that it was not always called Twitter as it is now. The name “Twttr” was chosen as the official name for this service; there was a popular trend those days to drop vowels in the name of companies and services. Software developer Noah Glass, is credited with coming up with both the names – “twttr” and “twitter”.
10. The reason behind the 140 character tweets was mobile phones.
Ranking 10th on the list of interesting facts about Twitter is this next one. The 140-character limit was imposed due to the prevalence of mobile phones which had the limit of 160 characters for Text Messages. Twitter wanted users to be able to send tweets via text messages. The maximum character length has now been raised to 280 characters. This is proof that technology is always changing.
11. Twitter is apparently more addicting than alcohol or cigarettes. (Source)
Quite shocking but it is true. Twitter is more addictive than alcohol or cigarettes, according to studies conducted by Chicago University’s Booth Business School.
12. Donald Trump has been indefinitely banned from Twitter following the Capitol Hill riots in 2021 due to the risk of further incitement of violence.
13. On March 21, 2006, the first tweet was sent.
One of Twitter’s co-founders, Jack Dorsey, was the first person to use the service. “Just setting up my twttr,” wrote Jack Dorsey in his first tweet on 21st March 2006. The public launch of the social networking site didn’t happen until July 15, 2006.
14. Larry is the name of the well-known blue Twitter bird.
Next on the list of interesting facts about Twitter is a fact that only a few Twitter users are aware of. Even regular Twitter users may not be aware that the bluebird’s name is Larry. Despite the fact that Twitter was founded in 2006, Larry’s identity was not confirmed until early 2012. While many people had speculated and questioned whether Larry the bird had a name or not, it was confirmed by Ryan Sarver, a Twitter manager, in a tweet.
15. Twitter is being banned in some countries.
Many countries are banning Twitter, which is one of the most interesting and trending topics of discussion. This is due to the fact that it is in violation of government regulations. Twitter had been banned in Nigeria, but the embargo was lifted after securing Twitter’s commitment to open a local office, appoint a local representative, and pay domestic taxes. As of Jan 2022, Twitter has been banned in some countries like China, Iran, North Korea, and Turkmenistan.
Finally, here are all of the interesting facts about Twitter. Some were grossly underrated, while others were grossly overrated. Some were in a good mood, while others were in a bad mood. Nonetheless, Twitter is regarded as one of the most powerful social media platforms for raising a powerful voice that can later be backed up by others.