Twitter is a social media platform for people to communicate and stay connected by exchanging instant messages and information (New User FAQ, n.d.). In this platform, people post tweets containing text, photos, videos, links, and emoticons. A tweet might also include a hashtag and a mention. A hashtag is a highlighted word or a combination of words, including the symbol “#” in front of it (Riquelme & Gonzales-Cantergiani, 2016). A mention, headed by the character “@,” includes another Twitter user's username. Additionally, a user X follows another user Z, then X is called a follower of Z, and Z is called a following of X.
On Twitter, there are different networks such as “retweet”, “replies to”, and “mentions” networks. A retweet is forwarding a tweet to your followers (New User FAQ, n.d.). When a user retweets another user's tweet, a relationship occurs between these two Twitter users. This network is called the “retweet” network. On the other hand, a reply is giving a response to another user's tweet. When a user replies to another user's tweet, then a link happens between these two users. This network is called the “replies to” network. Lastly, a user mentions another user's username in his/her tweet, and again a relationship occurs between these two users. This network is called the “mentions” network. Figure 1 shows a mention, hashtag, and reply.