Tiny Twitter “elite” responsible for 50% of all tweets
Researchers studying the origin of tweets have discovered that over half stem from the hyperactive tweeting of a tiny minority.
Digging into the numbers Yahoo! found that of 260m tweets posted on Twitter between July 2009 and March 2010 found that approximately 50% could be traced to just 20,000 “elite” users; that is celebrities, bloggers and media outlets.
Describing this as a “striking concentration” Yahoo! noted that: “…media produces the most information, but celebrities are the most followed,” adding “Information flows have not become egalitarian by any means.”
Analysts also found that Twitter users follow far less than they’re followed, a quirk which the researchers say does not conform to the usual characteristics of social networks but instead: “resembles more the mixture of one-way mass communications and reciprocated interpersonal communications.”