#Twitter7

Cast your mind back to 2006 - the year that Daniel Craig made his debut as the first blonde Bond, Coldplay won Album of the Year at the BRIT Awards, Sven-Göran Eriksson’s England team were knocked out of the World Cup quarter-finals, and Queen Elizabeth celebrated her 80th birthday.

It was on this day in 2006 in San Francisco, California, Jack Dorsey (@jack) first tweeted. Twitter now has more than 200 million users worldwide (10 million of them in the UK), and sees 400 million Tweets sent every day.

Individuals and organisations from worlds as diverse as fashion, football, politics and pop music have embraced Twitter over the past seven years and made it their own, 140 characters at a time.

And to help celebrate our seventh birthday, well-known personalities from across the UK shared their thoughts on what Twitter means to them, highlighting their favourite accounts to follow.

Twitter is a way for people to connect with their interests. In fact, you don’t need to tweet to be on Twitter. 40% of our users worldwide simply use Twitter as a curated news feed of updates that reflect their passions. So if you’re not sure who to follow, then you can get started with recommendations from some of the country’s best known Twitter personalities.

They have chosen a wonderful variety of philosophers, journalists, musicians, athletes and comedians - accounts that reflect their interests.

You can see the full list at discover.twitter.com/UK, with suggestions of who to follow from people in the worlds of sport, literature, business, music, TV and others. The contributors also explained what Twitter means to them in 140 characters or less - here’s a selection:

• Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker): I use Twitter for the knowledge, the news, the humour, the sport, the ability to eavesdrop on the great and the good, and above all, for the nonsense. 
• Fearne Cotton (@FearneCotton): Twitter is my brain spilled out in text, mates I don’t know, a great way of spying on people I love & a wonderful form of procrastination. 
• Vincent Kompany (@VincentKompany): Tweet and you shall be heard.. Tweet loud enough and you will move mountains… 
• Jameela Jamil (@JameelaJamil): Twitter gave me the voice that helped me break out of my pigeon hole. It also opened my eyes to how funny/troubled/scary people truly are 
• Richard Branson (@Richardbranson): To me, Twitter means a way to communicate with people in real-time, highlight good causes and - above all – have fun! 
• Sarah Millican (@Sarahmillican75): It’s always there. A link to the world. To tell me which celebs have died or show me a video of a monkey on a pig. Friends & fans alike. 
• Tinie Tempah (@TinieTempah): Twitter is a way I express myself to everyone who supports me & my music. It’s every kind of News. It’s pointless & precious information 
• Gabby Logan (@Gabby_Logan): A conversation shop that never shuts. Virtual friends I will never meet & real friends I don’t see enough. Makes you think. 
• Richard Hammond (@richardhammond): On TV I can talk to millions at once but on Twitter I can talk to them one at a time. It’s fascinating, infuriating, joyful and ridiculous