Estimates suggest that the micro-blogging service Twitter now has more than 10 million users and is growing faster than any other social network; however, despite the explosive hype surrounding it, research shows that a small percentage of users actually contribute to the vast majority of content.After probing exactly 300,542 Twitter accounts in May 2009, a Harvard Business School professor reported that 10 percent of the service's users produce more than 90 percent of the tweets.
In contrast, on other online social networks, the top 10 percent of users account for an average of around 30 percent of all production. That’s quite a stark difference, but why? To me, this implies that Twitter resembles more of a one-way or “one-to-many” publishing service; as opposed to other social networking tools that represent a two-way, “peer-to-peer” communication network.
The study compliments recent analysis by the media research firm Nielsen. Nielsen’s claim is that 60 percent of Twitter users do not return from one month to the next. Cooperatively, these findings suggest that, so far, Twitter has been a great deal better at signing up users than keeping them.
PROBLEM: the median number of lifetime tweets per user is one — when new people sign up for Twitter, they post once and then never return.
Twitter describes itself as a way to "communicate and stay connected" with "friends, family and co-workers". The team at Twitter needs to decide if this lack of member longevity is a problem. If they decide it is, they need to figure out how to spin Twitter into something more acceptable to the average Web 2.0 user.
6 comments
Thanks for the article, that was both insightful and scary at the same time.
June 10, 2009 at 1:33 PMAnother trend I've noticed appears to be somewhat elaborate profiles setup to "look" like real people, with interesting bios, convincing names and pictures and even a sprinkle of "personal" tweets... yet if you look closely, these profiles have one distinct purpose, to promote a product or products. I must admit, I've been duped a couple of times. Some of them are pretty damn convincing.
A few factors come to mind- twitter is still really young which means people are still figuring out how it fits in the context of the social sphere. What is impressive is that a brilliantly simple, well executed, well managed technology has created a new social lexicon. The question is less about who is following who but what will the twitter nation come up with next! Love these guys!
June 10, 2009 at 1:43 PMMaybe someone should start an adoption program for these poor little Tweets.
June 11, 2009 at 10:39 AMThat was a lame joke, loser.
July 8, 2009 at 1:56 PMVery observant. I like how you pointed this out: "PROBLEM: the median number of lifetime tweets per user is one — when new people sign up for Twitter, they post once and then never return." However, I would also like to point out that Twitter is practically mainstream nowadays, as celebrities have taken to using it. That's one way that Twitter was able to convince its users of its value. A way to reach their celebrity idols, why not? :)
January 26, 2015 at 11:35 PMAs for the "lurking," maybe that's why most accounts don't really have tweets in them; maybe all the users do is read what their idols are posting, you know?
Hey keep posting such good and meaningful articles.
September 12, 2017 at 11:19 PMPost a Comment