Sydney tops Melbourne in war of tweets

Sydney has edged out Melbourne in popularity of official accounts on Twitter, the social media platform that Australians have enthusiastically embraced.

Which Australian city is the heavy hitter on Twitter? It's Sydney by a beak.

The NSW capital has three dedicated Twitter accounts and together they edge out rival Melbourne on follower numbers.

But Melbourne has bragging rights when it comes to securing its own name "@melbourne" on the social media site.

A German business consultant secured the Twitter handle @sydney, forcing the city to opt for variants.

And Adelaide must be shaking its collective fist at the owner of @adelaide, an inactive account that last tweeted - and just the once - in 2007 to state "don't know how this (Twitter) works".

"It used to be that the web domain was all you'd need to worry about, so Melbourne.com," Dr David Tuffley, lecturer in social media at Griffith University, told AAP.

"Having control of your own Twitter handle is important and it is becoming more important as time goes by."

While Twitter keeps official figures under wraps, the number of Australian users range from 2.5 million to four million compared to a population of 23 million.

Still, Australia is one of the largest per capita users of Twitter.

"Australians are enthusiastic users of Twitter," Dr Tuffley said.

"Globally there are 302 million active users at the moment so in the grand scheme of things Australia is fairly small but, like with most things, we punch above our weight."

Dr Tuffley said people increasingly relied on the social media platform to keep abreast of cultural and other events occurring in their area, not just major news events.

But not all of Australia's state and territory capitals - like Hobart - have been won over.

"We don't have an official Facebook or Twitter account," a Hobart City Council spokeswoman told AAP.

"It needs to be resourced and we're just not in that space in this point in time."

OFFICIAL TWITTER ACCOUNTS OF AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL CITIES:

1. Sydney - @sydney_sider (156k followers), @cityofsydney (97k), @sydney_festival (91K)

2. Melbourne - @melbourne (110k), @thats_Melbourne (109K), @cityofmelbourne (98k)

3. Brisbane - @brisbanecityqld (89k), @visitbrisbane (3.1k)

4. Perth - @cityofperth (32k), @enjoyperth (17k)

5. Darwin - @cityofdarwin (3.2K)

6. Canberra - @canberra (1.6K)

7. Adelaide - @cityofadelaide (995)

8. Hobart - no official account.


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Source: AAP


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