Communications of the ACM
Researcher Cracks the Code on What Makes a Tweet Popular
Researchers have found that the total number of retweets a posting on Twitter receives is largely a function of the number it receives in the first 10 minutes after it is posted.
Credit: PC World
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have studied the variables that make tweets popular by analyzing a collection of 52 tweets from a variety of major Twitter accounts, including those of Garry Shandling and Ann Coulter. The researchers then built a model to predict how many retweets any given tweet would receive.
The researchers found that the total number of retweets a post ultimately gets is largely determined by the number it receives in the first 10 minutes. "In the first 10 minutes, you'll get about 10 percent of your retweets," says MIT professor Tauhid Zaman. "It's the same for everybody, whether you're Barack Obama or a small-time blogger."
The researchers want to use their data to develop a more sophisticated way of predicting and ranking the popularity of tweets and Twitter users. "If you don't hit a critical mass in the first few minutes, the chances are very slim that your tweet will have broad appeal," Zaman says.
The data has been collated on Twouija for users to explore, and eventually the site will be opened up so anyone can analyze any tweet to get a projection for how popular it will become in real time.
From PC World
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