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It is pretty much explained by Aiyana... I'm just going to re-organize and maybe tag a little bit of comment here in addition to what Aiyana said.

~ has 2 uses. 1 is what Aiyana said. ~ represents long drawn out sound like hello~ = helloooo. The other is to replaces the dash used to represent long vowel sound in katakana to make it look cuter and more decorative. In Japanese, all sounds ends with a vowel with "n" being an exception. Sometimes vowel sounds being long or short changes a word's meaning (i.e. obasan おばさん = aunt or generally middle aged female population while obaasan おばあさん = grandmother or general senior aged female population). Japanese has 2 writing systems. Hiragana and Katakana. Hiragana is what I have above... while katakana are usually reserved for foreign (epecially Western culture) words or words that has foreign root... either that or used when doing some character stylization to emphasize on something or onomatopoeia. Like in hiragana, long vowel sounds are usually denoted by hiragana characters "u" and "a," for katakana, long vowel sounds are denoted by a dash. ~ looks like stylized dash so a lot of Japanese use it to replace – on chat or on phone.

Also note... that in Japanese they will NEVER use a dash afterwards when it ends with "n." If they want to drawn out the sound it will go before "n" unless in case of onomatopoeia for stylized visual effect there will sometimes, not many but sometimes go after "n" but it is rare.

♪ is pretty obvious. It is a music note... so it basically means the tone of the said word or sentence were meant to be in a sing-song voice... or someone being chirpy.

As for star... it is mostly just for decorative purpose only... though the addition of graphical element in a text message usually liven up the text. In a way... using any graphic symbol pretty much is a way telling people that you're fine (that is if you are in habit of using them... if you are in habit of not using them in text or chat it just tells people you are more of the conservative type of person who adheres to rules etc etc.). Ah... but there are some people who use it to represent a hand (five points = five fingers = *wave*)

As for heart even though you did not mention it but some other reply mentioned it... it was akin to valediction/complimentary close of "with love" in regular postal letters in the past. Of course recently sometimes it may be also tagged at the end jokingly... basically using of this mark shows closeness to a certain extent. People usually don't use that mark in text or chat if they are merely aquaintances.

Apparently back like 20-30 years ago, Japanese schoolgirls started a trend of filling their writing with random English characters, hearts, stars, stuff like that, just a random fad that spread. I read about that in the wiki page for kawaii or something. The online use is probably a continuation of that.

The ~ character actually means something. It's put at the end of the word to show that the sound is drawn out. So Hello~ would be said more like Hellooo or something.

Because it's cute, and in Japan they're all about cute~~ ;P

That sort of stuff was first written by Japanese schoolgirls in there notes and stuff, trying to be cute.

In manga, it's used to give speech for life and description, for example:

I brought pizza~ (drags out the syllable)

Oh hello there <3 (lovingly, teasingly, flirtaciously)

You're jealous! ♪ (sing-song voice, teasing)

But I haven't heard much about the star. But it's like Black☆Rock Shooter, or Luka☆Luka Night Fever, or Miki☆Miki Romantic Night. You get the point.

" ~ " stretches the word out.

Like in the example you used... "Ding~" would be like, "Diiing"

Or "Kya~" would be like, "Kyaaa"

But instead they type it with a " ~ " at the end

It can also add a playful tone to a sentence (for example, "Hi hi~" or "Hey there~")

" ♪ " is just added to make something sound more sing-songy.

I have seen " ☆ " before but I've always thought of that one as just kind of... a decoration or something.

Like when other people say "Bye <3" , or add stars/hearts/etc. to their display names and profile. I don't think it really symbolizes anything.

It's very interesting question! I've never thought about it. Japanese use it just because it's cute and kinda ":)". It doesn't have much meaning. but it looks more friendly and cuter than without ☆ and ♪!

Their internet culture is a bit different from ours. I was looking at my iPhone a few weeks ago, and I realized that on the Japanese keyboard, they actually have shortcut keys for emoticons (e.g. ^_^ and stuff like that). And by that, I mean there was an entire tab full of emoticon shortcuts. I wish the U.S. keyboard had something like that too :P

Because it's "cute", the Japanese like small/cute things. And like being friendly, that's why many people who like anime are often overtly nice/sweet/pleasant and enthusiastic and use emotions such as "^_^".

It's reminiscent of their unique culture, it must tie in with the Harajuku and anime scene.

Some of them also say hi like "haiii" which to me sounds phonetically how the Japanese would say "hi".

i think they put a star and music note to make it look cute.

as for the ~, i have no idea. im more into korean stuff, but ive noticed they use that symbol alot as well.

ehh... its become a habit.

oh, when you see ☆, you say "hoshi".