The 1000 Follower Threshold
Twitter Follers graphic courtesy David Erickson
DAN ZARRELLA ON SOCIAL MEDIA TIMING
Dan Zarrella
Twitter users with more than 1000 followers are far less likely to use the tool for conversation.
They are much more likely to use Twitter as a broadcast medium.
THOUGHT: This has certainly been the case for myself. I used to be much more conversational on Twitter but it turns out that the more that was coming through my feed, the less inclined I was to engage in conversations.
I think that largely has to do with Twitter’s awkward handing (or not) of those conversations. There’s no real threading of conversations on Twitter, so as a rule, they are inherently difficult to follow.
It’s much easier to follow conversations with less volume in my feed.
Now, while I still do have conversations on Twitter, with the number of people I follow, it would simply take too much time to engage in conversations very often with of that volume of Twitter users.
Using Twitter more as a broadcast medium, I think, is fine as long as people find the stuff you’re sharing valuable. That’s very simple to determine by watching your unfollow rate.
Companies’ and brands’ use of Twitter will be somewhat dictated by the type of company or brand they are. The New York Times, for example, first used their Twitter account as a strictly broadcast medium, tweeting links to their stories. They’ve since changed and now engage quite a bit but the broadcast model worked for them, even so.
Conversely, food-type brands like restaurants or grocery stores are going to have to be much more responsive because people expect to be able to talk to them on Twitter and they expect an answer.
KEYWORD WEDNESDAY: As our political system teeters on the precipice of catastrophe by playing chicken with the debt ceiling, citizens turn to the Internet to educate themselves on the concept. Searches for “Debt Ceiling” have surged during the past twelve months. [CHART.]
Thank you for podcasts.
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