Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
What is a tweet and what are its specifics?
A tweet is a type of post published on the social media network Twitter.
The main characteristic of tweets is their short length. As of today, the maximum length of a Twitter post is 280 characters, while it used to be 140 characters a few years ago.
Tweets often feature hashtags and emojis. They can have attached images, audio and video files, hyperlinks with thumbnails, etc.
Who needs to cite Twitter posts?
Twitter is a social platform used widely by public persons and organisations from a variety of sectors: from TV stars to politicians and from industrial corporations to public authorities. Twitter accounts can publish different information: from entertaining contents to official messages.
The term ‘Twitter diplomacy’ even exists in the international political discourse. It stands for the political leaders’ use of Twitter to influence their electorate or to form the population’s political opinion. This illustrates the importance of Twitter as a social network in the contemporary world.
Due to this, tweets are cited in scholarly papers in different sectors. For example, in political science, Twitter posts are analysed from the perspective of global diplomacy, in linguistics, they are useful to track the lexicon used by particular persons or groups of persons in social media, and so on.
Today, social media posts are a valuable source of knowledge, and therefore modern citation styles consider them as a separate source type and offer dedicated rules for compiling bibliographic references to tweets and other types of posts.
How to cite tweets?
What elements to give in a bibliographic reference?
The contents of a bibliographic reference to a tweet and of an appropriate in-text citation depend on the rules of the particular citation style that you are using for compiling your bibliography. However, most often, a reference to a Twitter post should contain the following elements:
- name of the author of the tweet and/or their unique nickname (handle);
- text of the tweet/first words/description of the tweet’s contents;
- publication date;
- title of the social media Twitter;
- URL of the post and date accessed.
In addition, some citation styles may require indicating the type of file attached to the post.
How to compile a bibliographic reference to a tweet?
To compile a bibliographic reference, you need to identify and to write down all the information elements stated above and to compound all such elements in accordance with the style’s requirements. Processing every metadata component requires much time, therefore we have developed a service to allow you citing the tweets automatically by simply pasting their URL.
For example, let’s consider this tweet by the President of Ukraine:
Paste the tweet’s URL into the appropriate field on the form for referencing a social media post on the web service Grafiati and click on the ‘Fill in’ button. We will collect all the data automatically and fill in the required fields:
Thanks to this feature, you automatically get all the information about the tweet in one click. Next, click on the ‘Add reference’ button, and we will compile the bibliographic reference to the Twitter post in accordance with the rules of the chosen citation style.
Examples of bibliographic references to a tweet
In the table below, we provide examples of bibliographic references to the aforementioned post by Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Twitter:
| Citation style | Bibliographic reference |
| APA (7th ed.) | Zelenskyi, V. [@ZelenskyyUa]. (2022, February 24). Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in #2WW years. As of today, our countries [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1496787304811315202 |
| MLA (9th ed.) | Zelenskyi, Volodymyr [@ZelenskyyUa]. "Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in #2WW years. As of today, our countries are on different . . ." Twitter, 24 Feb. 2022, twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1496787304811315202. |
| Chicago (17th ed.) (notes and bibliography) | Zelenskyi, Volodymyr (@ZelenskyyUa). "Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in #2WW years. As of today, our countries are on different sides of world history...." Twitter, 24 February 2022. https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1496787304811315202. |
| Harvard | Zelenskyi, V. [ZelenskyyUa], (2022). [Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in #2WW years. As of today, our countries are on different sides of world history. 🇷🇺 has embarked on a path of evil, but 🇺🇦 is defending itself ...] [Twitter]. 24 February. [Viewed 3 April 2022]. Available from: https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1496787304811315202 |
| MHRA (3rd ed.) (notes and bibliography) | Zelenskyi, Volodymyr (@ZelenskyyUa), ‘Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in #2WW years. As of today, our countries [...]’, Twitter, 24 February 2022 |
| ISO 690:2021 | ZELENSKYI, Volodymyr [Twitter: @ZelenskyyUa]. Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in #2WW years. As of today, our countries ... Tweet. 2022-02-24. Available from: Twitter, https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1496787304811315202. [viewed 2022-04-03]. |
| Vancouver | Zelenskyi V. Twitter [Internet]. Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in #2WW years. As of today, our countries [Tweet]; 2022 Feb 24 [cited 2022 Apr 3]. Available from: https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1496787304811315202 |
| ABNT NBR 6023:2018 (author-date) | ZELENSKYI, Volodymyr. Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in #2WW years. As of today, our countries [...]. 24 Feb. 2022. Twitter: @ZelenskyyUa. Available from: https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1496787304811315202. Accessed: 3 Apr. 2022. |
All of the references above were generated automatically by Grafiati. They are fully compliant with the rules of each particular citation style, and therefore you can create a bibliographic reference to a tweet in just several seconds and paste it into your paper or thesis.
And if you want to know the rules for referencing tweets manually in different citation styles, see the respective articles for the source type ‘Social media post’ in our Referencing guides section.
Why should you cite tweets with Grafiati?
As can be seen from the table above, bibliographic references to a Twitter post might vary significantly across citation styles. Moreover, there are multiple difficulties that we cannot cover in this article (for instance, APA Style requires giving the first 20 words with emojis and hashtags, as well as indicating the type of files attached, etc.). By using the online service Grafiati, you gain the following advantages:
- Minimum time expenditures. You do not need to analyse the rules of any citation style applicable to social media posts nor to collect the metadata of tweets: just paste the post’s URL, and we will generate the reference automatically.
- Correct references. Our algorithms allow generating references to tweets without any In addition, you get an automatically generated in-text citation or footnote depending on the chosen citation style.
- Conversion into any citation styles. Have the requirements applicable to your bibliography changed? No problem: one click, and the reference to the tweet will be converted into the new citation style.
In addition, thanks to our website, you can automatically cite posts from other social media (for example, from the networks Tumblr and TikTok) and videos published on video hosting services (YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion).
Visit our homepage, select the source type ‘Social media post’ and paste the URL of the tweet that you would like to cite.