The Top Ten: Tweets

Adam Snow had the excellent idea of compiling a list of the best of the 140-charactermaximum microblogs, starting with the first: “just setting up my twttr.” Sent by @Jack, better known as Jack Dorsey, on 21 March 2006, it has now had 64,000 retweets.

"Ed Balls" @edballs (then tweeting as @edballsmp), 28 April 2011; 56,000 retweets. He says he was looking for a tweet that mentioned him. Nominated by @MrSimonM.

"hhhhhghhghhhh hhghghghghhghg hhwghghwghghgh ghghghghghghgh ghghghghghghgh hghghgggghggg" @YvetteCooperMP to me, from her handbag, by mistake, 18 November 2011; 153 retweets.

"Nailed it! That's a wrap!" @OneTweetTony, 13 June 2012; 2,925 retweets. Nominated by Calum, known as @u38cg.

"Four more years" @BarackObama, 7 November 2012, with photo of Barack embracing Michelle; 743,000 retweets (was the most retweeted, since overtaken by Ellen DeGeneres' selfie at the Oscars).

"Worse for me as there's nothing else in here" @JamesBlunt, replying to a tweeter who complained: "Waking up with James Blunt stuck in your head. Nowt worse." 5 June 2014; 2,209 retweets.

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" Leonard Nimoy, four days before he died; 279,000 retweets. LLAP = Live Long and Prosper.

"Image from #Rochester" @EmilyThornberry, 20 November 2014, with photo of house draped in England flags, and a white van; 1,068 retweets. MP's by-election tweet cost her her post. From @JoshCowls.

"Where does bad light end up? In Prism." @richardpinner, 8 October 2014; one retweet.

"If you're waiting for universal popularity, you'll be on Twitter a VERY long time. xxxx"

@jk_rowling, 6 September 2014; 6,217 retweets. Thanks to Graham Sutton.

"We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet"

@CIA, 6 June 2014; 303,000 retweets. Nominated by John Peters (@johnthejack).