How interesting. No one really committed to "Strongly Agree"
Daniel_Honigman
· 7 months ago
Does that surprise you?
Daniel_Honigman
· 7 months ago
I'm surprised more folks don't strongly agree on Twitter follow backs. Then again, there are a lot more spammers on there these days.
Great post, Ann.
Jackie
· 7 months ago
it's mostly spam!
Stephanie Inge
· 7 months ago
I think that most people use Twitter for self-promotion and personal branding, whether it's a product or service. There are some who use it as a minute-by-minute diary, but that could be very boring, unless you live life on the edge. IMHO
Dave
· 7 months ago
It is nice to see what goes on in the mind of twitter users. This is a growing phenomenon that seems like it will keep growing. Social websites are the way of the future imho. They are already very big. People love interaction...
I'm sorry, I like Marketing Profs. but a sample group of 432 out of a user base of 6,000,000 (and growing?) Not to mention, who were the folks who participated in the survey? Are they pre-Twitter Boom or post-Twitter Boom users?
Not comprehensive enough here to warrant (yet) another Twitter post.
Bianca
· 7 months ago
I'm with Brandon.
Your survey should be called "Inside the Minds of Highly Involved Twitter Users" it's not at all a reflection of the general Twitter population for a variety of reasons.
The first rule on doing surveys that aim to reflect a population is to use a random sample, which you guys clearly didn't if you went for the "highly involved users". I'd expect more from "The Social Media Guide"
Mack Collier
· 7 months ago
The second paragraph states: "Here are the highlights of a survey of 432 highly involved Twitter users".
The average Twitter user uses Twitter much differently than 'power' users do. This survey clearly sought to get into the mind of that group.
Ann Handley
· 7 months ago
A word on methodology: I solicited survey responses from people who follow me (@marketingprofs) on Twitter, where I have about 28,000 followers, and then I asked those followers to retweet the survey link. As far as I could tell, about 116 people retweeted the link to their own network of followers; the sizes of their networks varied greatly.
We didn't specify that we were looking for any certain profile of user, but the information that came back from the 432 revealed that the majority were fairly involved with Twitter -- at least, that's our interpretation of someone who spends 2 3/4 hours a day interacting there. Maybe those motivated to respond to the survey are more involved with Twitter than those who didn't. (That's one possible was to look at it.)
The bottom line is that this is a snapshot, an insight into the minds of users. Thanks for letting me clarify.
CaptainJack63
· 7 months ago
That's a very small sample and lacks a more comprehensive view of the data. If this is a true snap shot of social networking then we are all in trouble.
zohaibusman
· 7 months ago
this survey is quite terrific but there are all sort of people in this world. Some people do care if they don't get the response. friends said to me "you are proud" you wont retweet our tweets, you don't respond to our tweets and bla bla bla. Twitter is exciting i agree but its better if we care about others. Retweeting is a good way to help others. And celebrities yes i think they have the right. They got attitude because There life's are different and we love them by the way
baronOfPearls
· 7 months ago
How do tweeters feel about being pruned/removed/blocked for no apparent reason when following someone they have never met?
Kikolani
· 7 months ago
I prefer following back people on Twitter because I believe that social media is a two way street. If you think about friends in real life, would you want to be friends with someone who agreed never to communicate back to you, or pay attention to anything you said?
Just because someone follows you on Twitter doesn't make them your friend. If it doesn't suit your interests (personal and/or professional) to follow someone in return, then don't. It's that simple. Sure, it's flattering to have someone you don't know begin to follow you based on your bio and twitter feed, but obligatory reciprocity tends to carry an air of immaturity in many social media forums. And I would like to see Twitter avoid this if possible.
Although the majority of Twitterers do utilize some level of reciprocity, I think people need to accept the fact that there are going to be people who follow you and you won't have any desire to follow them in return. And there will be people whom you follow that have no interest in following you in return. This isn't a high school cafeteria.
Line
· 7 months ago
I agree with Candice.
Tom Kern
· 7 months ago
Nice linking up so easily on twitter and facebook
John Moore
· 7 months ago
Kikolani nails it when she discusses the fact that social media is a two way street. Every person uses twitter for different reasons but, at the end of the day, social media is about joining a community of users and investing in conversations. People that purely listen, or those that purely speak, will never get the full value from any social platform.
Interesting stuff, Ann. I suppose our experiences with Twitter depend on our objectives. For those who just want to play, it can certainly connect people from far and wide. For those who use it for lead generation, that would take a different set of metrics. It also leads me to wonder how many "business" respondents would answer truthfully to the motivation question. Maybe some would think it's not kosher to admit that they're in it primarily for business reasons. Who knows?
Ann Handley
· 7 months ago
@elaine The survey was blind; meaning, we didn't collect contact info/name (that was purely optional). Given that, I'm not sure why respondees wouldn't offer the unvarnished truth. Thanks for the comment!
workingman
· 7 months ago
twitter is for people who have too much extra time in their hands...
jvlane257
· 7 months ago
As one of the respondents, it's interesting to see this info come back around so quickly. But the fact that I'm one of the respondents also says a lot about how far you can take the info. I learned about the survey via MarketingProfs on Twitter — was it publicized anywhere else? Because if not (or maybe even if so) I imagine the other respondents have a similar profile to mine: someone following you because I'm in the marketing/social media field. And I imagine that us folks who use a social medium for clients as well as for ourselves makes our view of "why we use a social medium" very different from others.
Sherb13
· 7 months ago
Good point jvlane257. I didn't see an ad for the survey. If the sample comes from a restricted source, that would bias the result.
As I'm not in the numbers game, I don't follow everyone who follows me. They have to be relevant to why I'm here - in my case, personal and professional interests and learning more about social media generally.
jeffreysummers
· 7 months ago
I love the quote that 'social media is more about the social than the media' and it's very true. I get more from people who I follow back and who do likewise than anything/anyone else - even strangers (though they don't stay that way). Following twits back is easy and can be automated (even filtering out the spam) so why not? The more people you engage with the more ideas/thoughts/support can be shared. That makes for a true community.
Great article Ann. Followback in say 6 months A.O. (after Oprah) to see if anythings changed?
This information is very interesting to read. How to use it... is another matter. Like with any survey, we need to remember "sample'. The reciprocity issue is one of interest but the fact that we Learn from twitter makes sense to me. I know I do. That motivates me to provide beneficial, interesting, food for thought.
Thanks. I'm going to pass it on and reread myself!
bobbybadu
· 7 months ago
Where is the simple "do not agree and disagree"?
Reesie36
· 7 months ago
It is more nuanced than simply two answers.
@JoshHurlock
· 7 months ago
Thanks for the post Ann.
The key is to build relationships with people. What should matter most is retweets and people taking the time to engage with you. This shows you are making an impact. Once you build a few good relationships then your brand will spread and there you go, expanding your influence.
bravelittlememe
· 7 months ago
Insightful. I now feel a lot better about my site and its associated twitter feed having a mere 29 followers in the whole world.
In all seriousness however, if this article goes some way towards dispelling the myth that reciprocal following is somewhat mandatory or expected, it can only be a good thing. I personally check out all my new followers' tweets, but only follow those whom I find interesting, relevant, or at the very least amusing. I'd rather have a small number of followers who actually care (and in turn follow a small number of people whose opinions I value) than reciprocate thousands for the sake of an imagined popularity.
More signal, less noise.
Ann Handley
· 7 months ago
One of the strengths of Twitter is that there are no "rules." You can follow/unfollow/or use it however you see fit...
That said, that results from the reciprocal following question surprised me. I sort of always assumed that people would feel bad if others didn't follow them back.. but guess that's just me. (Ha.)
For the record, I do follow those who follow me, as a rule. But again, that's just my philosophy/preference.
LOTA MANESS
· 7 months ago
BUILDS UP MY EGO. ALL OF A SUDDEN I REALLY AM SOMEBODY., I TELL EVERYONE I KNOW ABOUT TWITTER. I FEEL LIKE A REAL PART OF THE WORLD.
okinawa
· 7 months ago
That explains why I keep getting "friended" by people I don't know I guess.
Tamona Renee
· 7 months ago
Interested article! As a new user, I was just asking the above questions of myself. I realized that I learned of Twitter through a celebrity (Ashton). However, I remain a Twitter user because the community (as well as Ashton) as intellectual. I don't know if it was a good idea for the research to ask about being smarter. Most "smart" people have egos and would not answer that question honestly. Then again, smart people don't have to be the smartest person in the room. They just have to be in a room with smart people. I enjoy being a part of the Twitter community because I find the majority of the people want to exchange information. When I talk about "issues" elsewhere I get complaints (Let's keep it light...). When I talk about issues on Twittr, I get articles, videos, and discussion. Tweet On! Tamona Renee, Love Koach
Ellen Weber
· 7 months ago
Thanks for an eye-opening view of the Twitter mind, Ann and Allen! Well done and very informative overview. I am still forming my own motivation for Twitter:-)
A few things seem clear though - after time on Twitter, it's quite easy to see differences among people's motivation.
It takes time to sort through folks who really engage different ideas and who toss keen insights into a topic - angles you may have missed otherwise. It also takes a fair bit of talent to value and apply diverse ideas, reach beyond old assumptions, engage in fresh perspectives and then shoot back relevant responses in a few meaningful words. Your own thoughtful reflection here inspires the best from all of us.
My own line of work involves applying new neuro discoveries to improve daily practices for leaders and learners. Twitter keeps me up to date so that I see gaps in the fields, and new possibilities from daily discoveries:-) Thanks for nudging the Twitter process into deeper waters for another look:-)
Susan Baier
· 7 months ago
Ann, this is very interesting! Have you considered doing a segmentation analysis on this data? To your point (last paragraph), different people are motivated by different things. I think a segmentation analysis would be fascinating to determine, among these highly involved users, how their motivations differentiate them.
sprestonduncan
· 7 months ago
I enjoyed this study, but would like to see one concerning the localization of Twitter, and the impact on real life, physical interaction that twitter has exherted. How many people have you met in person due to tweeting? Do local events see attendence rates correlate to the popularity of that event's twitter buzz (and to what extent)?
Personally, the relationships I've developed on Twitter have tended to expand into more tangible realms, and i dig that. A lot.
Alex Kahl
· 7 months ago
Interesting survey.
We had a survey like that in germany as well. maybe it's interesting for some of you:
2.800 german twitteruser filled out the survey in march 2009:
I the validity of these stats really do depend on who you're targeting. For example, if I personally see someone with 100K followers, I know that there are multiple ways of getting to this high number (some legit and some not legit).
However, if Bob the small business owner hears about Twitter and then sees that I have 100K followers, he thinks "wow! a lot of people care what this guy has to say.".
People that are only mildly familiar with Twitter and how it works will be wow'd at high numbers of followers. In some cases, those may be the people you're targeting in trying to get huge followings.
It would be interesting if research could be done on the professions of Twitterers, and if this research could be organized around time of sign-up. In the beginning of Twitter, I'm sure there weren't many celebrities or brands tweeting. Of-course now as Twitter is becoming slightly more mainstream within social networking/media, we see celebrities and brands join in. I also think that Twitter began with users who were and are geeks, creative-types, explorers, people who (as you share here) are open to learning new things. I'm sure the interest in following those were followers was fairly high. In a few years, it will be interesting to see the volume of users and what people get out of Twitter!
Courtney Kuehn
· 7 months ago
It would be interesting if research could be done on the professions of Twitterers, and if this research could be organized around time of sign-up. In the beginning of Twitter, I'm sure there weren't many celebrities or brands tweeting. Of-course now as Twitter is becoming slightly more mainstream within social networking/media, we see celebrities and brands join in. I also think that Twitter began with users who were and are geeks, creative-types, explorers, people who (as you share here) are open to learning new things. I'm sure the interest in following those were followers was fairly high. In a few years, it will be interesting to see the volume of users and what people get out of Twitter!
"One of the tenets of social psychology research is the prevalence of reciprocity: that people try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided."
It's Kind of natural for a beneficiary to "try to repay" something in return for "what another person has provided" given that Pople have to spend time and resources to do any damn thing..
Then came the Idea of Currency from Barter System...
But, People's calculation of worthyness varies.
One might feel that the Person who followed is worthy of being follwed by themselves...
“People who have a large number of followers are definitely not smarter than those who don’t.”
> Number of Followers might have been attained by Hook or Crook. > Not all Smart People in this World is on Twitter, this might have been considered in the Data Provided.. but just a point... > May be you should consider ratio of Number of Followers/Followings, again this has flaws...
Fascinating look at the beliefs and motivations of people using social media. And it appears that it varies quite widely - I think that if we learn why people engage on twitter and figure out the different utilities for it, it will help to lift our economy out of the mess it's in, as people learn to trust again!
Chris Saddler
· 7 months ago
what a stupid survey. you guys really don't have a life. you are wondering what others think about you on the internet. grab a beer and drop d... own in bed with someone and have sex. better than twitter. even the name sounds like one for small dic... something.
mixitupmagazine
· 7 months ago
Interesting survey. It would be good to do this again in say a year or so and then compare the results.
All Comments
Great post, Ann.
http://www.TheCommentDepot.com
Not comprehensive enough here to warrant (yet) another Twitter post.
Your survey should be called "Inside the Minds of Highly Involved Twitter Users" it's not at all a reflection of the general Twitter population for a variety of reasons.
The first rule on doing surveys that aim to reflect a population is to use a random sample, which you guys clearly didn't if you went for the "highly involved users". I'd expect more from "The Social Media Guide"
The average Twitter user uses Twitter much differently than 'power' users do. This survey clearly sought to get into the mind of that group.
We didn't specify that we were looking for any certain profile of user, but the information that came back from the 432 revealed that the majority were fairly involved with Twitter -- at least, that's our interpretation of someone who spends 2 3/4 hours a day interacting there. Maybe those motivated to respond to the survey are more involved with Twitter than those who didn't. (That's one possible was to look at it.)
The bottom line is that this is a snapshot, an insight into the minds of users. Thanks for letting me clarify.
Twitter is exciting i agree but its better if we care about others. Retweeting is a good way to help others. And celebrities yes i think they have the right. They got attitude because There life's are different and we love them by the way
http://twitter.com/kikolani
Although the majority of Twitterers do utilize some level of reciprocity, I think people need to accept the fact that there are going to be people who follow you and you won't have any desire to follow them in return. And there will be people whom you follow that have no interest in following you in return. This isn't a high school cafeteria.
John
http://twitter.com/JohnFMoore
As I'm not in the numbers game, I don't follow everyone who follows me. They have to be relevant to why I'm here - in my case, personal and professional interests and learning more about social media generally.
Great article Ann. Followback in say 6 months A.O. (after Oprah) to see if anythings changed?
http://www.twitter.com/JeffreySummers
Thanks. I'm going to pass it on and reread myself!
The key is to build relationships with people. What should matter most is retweets and people taking the time to engage with you. This shows you are making an impact. Once you build a few good relationships then your brand will spread and there you go, expanding your influence.
In all seriousness however, if this article goes some way towards dispelling the myth that reciprocal following is somewhat mandatory or expected, it can only be a good thing. I personally check out all my new followers' tweets, but only follow those whom I find interesting, relevant, or at the very least amusing. I'd rather have a small number of followers who actually care (and in turn follow a small number of people whose opinions I value) than reciprocate thousands for the sake of an imagined popularity.
More signal, less noise.
That said, that results from the reciprocal following question surprised me. I sort of always assumed that people would feel bad if others didn't follow them back.. but guess that's just me. (Ha.)
For the record, I do follow those who follow me, as a rule. But again, that's just my philosophy/preference.
A few things seem clear though - after time on Twitter, it's quite easy to see differences among people's motivation.
It takes time to sort through folks who really engage different ideas and who toss keen insights into a topic - angles you may have missed otherwise. It also takes a fair bit of talent to value and apply diverse ideas, reach beyond old assumptions, engage in fresh perspectives and then shoot back relevant responses in a few meaningful words. Your own thoughtful reflection here inspires the best from all of us.
My own line of work involves applying new neuro discoveries to improve daily practices for leaders and learners. Twitter keeps me up to date so that I see gaps in the fields, and new possibilities from daily discoveries:-) Thanks for nudging the Twitter process into deeper waters for another look:-)
Personally, the relationships I've developed on Twitter have tended to expand into more tangible realms, and i dig that. A lot.
We had a survey like that in germany as well. maybe it's interesting for some of you:
2.800 german twitteruser filled out the survey in march 2009:
http://www.twitterumfrage.de
here is a link to a version translated by google:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev...
However, if Bob the small business owner hears about Twitter and then sees that I have 100K followers, he thinks "wow! a lot of people care what this guy has to say.".
People that are only mildly familiar with Twitter and how it works will be wow'd at high numbers of followers. In some cases, those may be the people you're targeting in trying to get huge followings.
Jon Tucker
http://www.Twitter.com/JonTuckerUSA
that people try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided."
It's Kind of natural for a beneficiary to "try to repay" something in return for "what another person has provided" given that Pople have to spend time and resources to do any damn thing..
Then came the Idea of Currency from Barter System...
But, People's calculation of worthyness varies.
One might feel that the Person who followed is worthy of being follwed by themselves...
“People who have a large number of followers are definitely not smarter than those who don’t.”
> Number of Followers might have been attained by Hook or Crook.
> Not all Smart People in this World is on Twitter, this might have been considered in the Data Provided.. but just a point...
> May be you should consider ratio of Number of Followers/Followings, again this has flaws...
Regards,
Bijay Rungta
http://bijayrungta.com
@rungss on Twitter
mixitupmagazine.com
mixitupmagazine.wordpress.com
twitter.com/mixitupmagazine