Harvard study confirms that Twitter is unique
Indeed. As a Business Anthropologist, I am fascinated by who chooses to be active in Twitter and what they’re up to. And equally fascinated by the numbers – including marketers and business pundits – who are fearful, confounded or compelled to denigrate Twitter.
Among Twitter users, the median number of lifetime tweets per user is one. This translates into over half of Twitter users tweeting less than once every 74 days.
At the same time there is a small contingent of users who are very active. Specifically, the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets. On a typical online social network, the top 10% of users account for 30% of all production. To put Twitter in perspective, consider an unlikely analogue – Wikipedia. There, the top 15% of the most prolific editors account for 90% of Wikipedia’s edits ii. In other words, the pattern of contributions on Twitter is more concentrated among the few top users than is the case on Wikipedia, even though Wikipedia is clearly not a communications tool.
Those 10% are very active. As other bloggers have explored, they differ from other social media users in several ways. What I find especially interesting are the small, non-monetized exchanges being invented real time. The skill to do so is not taught in MBA programs; a better place to look might be Aikido dojos and community theatres. As I see it, Creatives from all over the world are exchanging because it’s fun and enlivening. A high-performing client remarked to me recently, “I love going on Twitter; I always learn there.”
For those who feel a need to distinguish between value and play (believing that play is defined as ‘not creating value’,) I am happy to explore the question: what are millions of people finding on Twitter? The more practical value includes:
Questions
Insights
Perspectives
Tools
Solutions
Resources
The less practical? Challenges; inspiring quotations, accomplishments, and points of view. I learned about the Harvard study this morning on Twitter. Thanks @DanOnBranding and @Lapp.
Received wisdom when I was in grad school was that one could recognize the advent of human ancestors in the archeological record when tools became more beautiful than they needed to be to get the job done. Making such tools was viewed as distinctly human behavior. Does anyone think that has changed?
And who made those beautiful tools? Not the median tool user. This anthropologist will bet it was the same part of the population who are now active on Twitter. The 10% who feel compelled to make the world better.
These are the people who are navigating the economic downturn by inventing new exchanges with people all over the world. Whether or not money is involved, these Creatives are like bees – pollinating our businesses and communities – sparking new value - making the economy more resilient.
Filed under Business Anthropologist, Changing Economic patterns, Navigating the downturn, Resilient Enterprises, Social media | Comments (4)4 Responses to “Harvard study confirms that Twitter is unique”
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Marsha, I was riveted by this statement from the 140tc conference stage by Robert Scoble (@scobleizer):
“We are in the command-line era of Twitter.”
I entered technology in the command-line era of the DOS operating system, and if the applications that are created around Twitter are twenty five years beyond the application evolution of DOS, we’re in for quite a ride!
As far as your question goes, I get news, commentary, inspiration, information and a view into the collective consciousness from Twitter.
The Twitter experience for me is like seeing clouds from above… Once a rare treat that has become more accessible to more people over time.
Marsha,
Couldn’t agree with you more about Twitter…for me Twitter is like being in a perpetual book store…yet many have some pretty strong perceptions and opinions about Twitter depsite having never even tried it.
One other practical ‘value’ I would add to your list that I honestly didn’t think about when I first started using twitter…are the new friends and people with whom I have shared interests with that I have met thru twitter, and in some cases started to get to know in a deeper way than others that I meet in my typical day to day business dealings. And over time, these new ‘friendships’ can blossom into live face to face meetings and collaborations…Pretty amazing to think about speaking or I should say tweeting to people a few times a week that you never met before, yet overtime, you become ‘friends’ and collaborators etc.
[...] two comments below, in response to my blog post, “Harvard Study Confirms That Twitter is Unique”, point to that same synergistic learning: [...]
[...] how Twitter works as a learning portal – for approximately 10% of its users, according to a 2009 Harvard study. With over 1000 user-designed applications, no one has quite figured out how many people that [...]