Tweetstorm
A tweetstorm is a series of related tweets posted by a Twitter user in quick succession.[1]
The word tweetstorm has been used by Twitter users since 2008.[1] In the beginning, it referred not to a lot of tweets shared by one individual, but to a number of different individuals quickly tweeting about the same topic.[1] Often in these instances the tweets had a unifying hashtag.[1] The newer definition, and the one most typically used since its creation, was coined and popularized in 2014 by Marc Andreesen and Chris Dixon.[2][3]
When used by one person, tweetstorms are a way to work around Twitter’s character count limitation.[4] In 2017, Twitter announced the launch of a new feature that would allow people to more easily post tweetstorms.[4] The threads feature saw a new plus (+) button added to Twitter.[4] With it, people could type out a series of tweets and then tap “Tweet all” to share the tweetstorm.[4] Before this feature, tweetstorms were connected to each other as @replies.[5]
Tweetstorm was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2019.[1]
The word also influenced the creation of the word podstorm, a series of related podcast episodes published by a podcaster in quick succession.[6][7]
References
- "What's a 'Tweetstorm'?". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- "What Should We Make Of The 'Tweetstorm' Or 'Thread,' Or Whatever You Call It?". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- "Why Twitter's Newest Tweetstorm™ Trend Must Be Stopped". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- "Twitter officially launches 'threads,' a new feature for easily posting tweetstorms". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- "For better or worse, Twitter is finally embracing the tweetstorm". Fast Company. 2017-12-12. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- "Megan Macaluso Product Adoption is a Fool's Errand | Helping Sells Podstorm #1". helpingsells.substack.com. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
- "A Podstorm: A Powerful Idea For Podcasters & Podcast Listeners". Christopher Lochhead. Retrieved 2020-07-02.