Posted on Saturday, May 8, 2010 by
Michael •
From the Harvard Business Review’s piece about a new Twitter study from the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Germany…
Only about 11% of Twitter users actively tweet.
Given the tremendous hype around Twitter, I’m surprised its that low. However, it’s still an astounding 6 million actively used accounts (out of 52 million total)… but it’s also not far off the old 1:9:90 estimate that posited that 1% of many social media users contributed the vast majority of the content, 9% a little, and 90% none. Which means most Web 2.0 folks are lurkers/voyeurs who are listening/watching and reading the few extroverts among us.
A recent look at Front Porch Forum in Starksboro, VT found that ratio to be 34:44:22… or an amazing 78% of members had posted content on FPF over the past year! And, about 45% of the entire subscribes. FPF can be VERY active.
Posted in: Citizen Journalism, Civic Engagement, Community Building, Front Porch Forum, Local Online, Neighborhood, social capital, Social Media, Social Networking, Stories, Twitter
Michael,
Today’s post was an interesting post, thanks for sharing with others – it was really about followers and influence, but we each take what we want from an article . I am confused on one part of your interpretation, “11% active” does not really match to “9% a little” does it? It might, but I am not understanding the leap there?
The comment on Web 2.0 is unfair, actually. It sounds like, you are saying Web 2.0 people are all about Twitter. I am not suggesting at all that everyone needs to go to Facebook, just point out a statistic – which you can verify 400 million users, and 50% log on each day and “Average user creates 70 pieces of content each month”. Facebook is considered Web 2.0 by many people.
Moving from Facebook to Blogs – which is also considered Web 2.0 – there are 200 million blogs, that is people just sharing and writing. Twitter may or may not finds its place. Many will find it useless, I would not try to convince people otherwise if that is their disposition. I find it useful, but that is just me.
I respect the numbers for FPF, I am not sure whether a post in the last year is “a little” or not, that is for others to decide. Community is community, I think FPF could and would be successful independent of the platform/technology, a credit to you.
Mitch
Thanks Mitch. The Harvard Business Review piece deserves a closer read than I’ve been able to give it yet. And there seems little doubt that Facebook is hugely successful at assimilating hundreds of millions of people… the new Borg… proving that many people are eager to be assimilated. Twitter… I find it useful, but not as addictive as some friends do. Four Square escapes me. Groupon brings real value to people and local businesses. On and on… to each her own. That is to say, I prefer the open Internet over Facebook… but that’s another post.
Michael,
I appreciate the response, thanks. I fully agree with your take on Groupon, and Facebook worries me as well, we are note alone either – a google search of “leaving facebook” yields 55Million results.
Cheers,
Mitch