Twitter is one of the leading social networks with over 305 million monthly active users as of late 2015. Key features of Twitter include trending topics, verified accounts, related headlines, polls, and video apps like Periscope. Twitter is planning changes later in 2016 to make conversations easier by excluding @names from the 140 character count and allowing media attachments without using characters. Changes will also allow users to retweet or quote tweet their own tweets. [/SUMMARY]

1. Digital Knowledge
Twitter

2. According to recent social media industry figures, Twitter
currently ranks as one of the leading social networks
worldwide based on active users. As of the fourth quarter of
2015, Twitter had 305 million monthly active users.
Registered users can read and post tweets as well as follow
other users via update feed. As of January 2016, Katy Perry
was the most-followed celebrity on Twitter with more than 80
million followers.

3. Key Features of Twitter
Trending Topics
Trending topics become popular either
through a concerted effort by users, or
because of an event that prompts
people to talk about a specific topic.
Verified Accounts
The official Twitter profile of Twitter, Inc. The
blue check mark right of the profile name
confirms that it’s a verified account.Twitter is
responsible for assigning the blue checkmark,
and it is frequently applied to the accounts of
notable people in politics, music, movies,
business, fashion, government, sports, media,
and journalism.
Related headlines
feature
This feature adds websites to the bottom of
a tweet's permalink page. If a website
embedded a tweet onto one of their stories,
the tweet will show the websites that
mentioned the tweet. This feature was
added onto Twitter so if the viewer doesn't
understand what the tweet means, they can
click on the sites to read more about what
the person is talking about.
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4. Key Features of Twitter (Continued…)
Polls
On October 21, 2015, Twitter began to
roll out the ability to attach poll
questions to tweets. Polls are open for
24 hours, and voters are not
personally identified.
Video Apps
Periscope is Twitter's live-streaming video app,
not to be confused with the recently launched
Meerkat, also a live-streaming app. It allows
you to watch and broadcast live video from all
across the globe.
Find & Follow Influencers
Sign in to Tweetdeck basic and locate the
individual / brand you want to follow. View
their profile and find out how many Twitter
Lists they are members of and then divide
that by the number of followers. If this
number is less than 5%, then the brand /
individual does not have sufficient influence.
If it’s more, then follow & interact with that
brand / individual!
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5. Other Twitter video apps include the following:
● Meerkat (app)
● Ustream
● Livestream
● Google Hangouts
● Snapchat
● YouTube Live
● Streamup
● YouNow
● Twitch.tv

6. The "While You Were Away" Feature
This feature was added in 2015 as a first attempt to rid users of whatever
FOMO (fear of missing out) they may have been feeling from the chronological
nature of the original Timeline.
Basically, it's a recap of some of the best tweets you may not have seen
otherwise. How do these tweets make the cut? According to TechCrunch, it's
determined by "user engagement" -- although they don't get any more specific
than that.

7. Changes
coming soon!
Twitter is overhauling some of its rules to try to
make itself simpler to use and more attractive to
newcomers. Users will be able to add
multimedia to tweets - including pictures and
videos - without eating into the 140-characters-
a-post limit. It is also planning to change the
way people reply to tweets.

8. The changes, due to implemented later in 2016 (probably
autumn), will be:
● Replies: When replying to a Tweet, @names will
no longer count toward the 140-character count.
This will make having conversations on Twitter
easier and more straightforward
● Media attachments: When you add attachments
like photos, GIFs, videos, polls, or Quote Tweets,
that media will no longer count as characters within
your Tweet. More room for words!
● Retweet and Quote Tweet yourself: Twitter will
be enabling the Retweet button on your own
Tweets, so you can easily Retweet or Quote Tweet
yourself when you want to share a new reflection or
feel like a really good one went unnoticed.

9. ● Goodbye, .@: These changes will help simplify the
rules around Tweets that start with a username. New
Tweets that begin with a username will reach all of a
user’s followers. (That means users will no longer have
to use the ”.@” convention, which people currently use
to broadcast Tweets broadly.) If you want a reply to be
seen by all your followers, you will be able to Retweet it
to signal that you intend for it to be viewed more
broadly.
That last change does away with confusion over posts
beginning with a username. These are currently seen only by
a person’s followers if they too were following the member
mentioned at the start of the tweet.