Communications of the ACM
How to Get More Followers on Twitter
Researchers have identified the types of content that need to be tweeted in order to build a following on Twitter.
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Georgia Tech researchers completed a study examining 500,000 tweets over 15 months to find a set of reliable predictors for building a Twitter following. The researchers found that informational content attracts followers at a rate 30 times higher than content focused on the tweeter.
It also is important to avoid negative posts such as death, unemployment, and poor health. Finally, the researchers found that the higher a Twitter user's hashtag ratio, the less likely they were to attract new followers.
"For the first time, we were able to explore the relative effects of social behavior, message content, and network structure and show which of these factors has more influence on the number of Twitter followers," says Georgia Tech professor Eric Gilbert.
The researchers examined the tweets of more than 500 Twitter users, and identified 2,800 terms that convey positive and negative emotions, scoring each term based on a sliding scale of positivity. Their method enabled the researchers to determine whether Twitter users who used each term gained or lost followers.
"By examining multiple factors that affect tie formation and dissolution over time on Twitter, we’ve discovered information that could help technologists design and build tools that help users grow their audiences," Gilbert says.
From Georgia Tech News
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Abstracts Copyright © 2013 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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