FLINT -- Tweets, hashtags, followers and mentions are four words that make up a big part of the vernacular of Twitter.

The social media service was launched less than five years ago, and now has more than 200 million users worldwide.

Twitter is revolutionizing how many people follow sports.

On February 6th, 2011, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 to win Super Bowl XLV.

In the final minutes of that game, Twitter users sent an average of 4,064 tweets per second.

To date, it is the second highest level of sustained activity on the site, behind only the hours following the announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed.

"Its almost like a secondary spectator sport just to see what everybody else is saying about it," says University of Michigan-Flint assistant professor of English Dr. James Schirmer.

"Its kind of similar to sitting in a bar and everybody's in this one place, for this particular purpose. So, you'll hear bits of different conversations going on, but they'll all be about the same thing," adds the professor, who has his students communicate using Twitter as part of a four-week assignment each semester.

The social media site is now an important part of how the Great Lakes Loons communicate with their fans.

"Its a changing business. There's always something going on, something new popping up, so its good to be on the cutting edge," says Alex Wassel, communications manager for the Single-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Wassel is responsible for updating the Loons' social media feeds, which include Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare.

The team currently has over 1,100 followers on Twitter.

"Its a great tool for one-on-one with your fans. Just another way to provide customer service to our fans," adds Wassel.

Professor Schirmer's advice on utilizing Twitter includes a warning about spambots, automated computer programs that send spam to users of Twitter.

"Not everybody is using Twitter or any other kind of social media for that matter for honest and true purposes. There are some nefarious endeavors trying to happen, even through Twitter," says Dr. Schirmer

 Follow Dillon Collier on Twitter.