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Of 1.2 Billion Twitter Posts, 71% Are Ignored

destinyland writes "1.2 billion Twitter 'tweets' were analyzed over two months by analytics company Sysomos, who concluded that a whopping 71% of them got no reaction whatsoever — no online responses, and no Twitter 'retweets.' 'Only a small number of users actually have the ability to engage on Twitter in a significant way,' the researchers conclude, noting that just 6% of Twitter's status updates ever get retweeted (while 23% get a reply). And among those status updates, 85% have exactly one response, while only 1.53% of Twitter conversations are more than three levels deep — where a reply receives a response which then generates a second reply." I am astounded by the claim that nearly three out of ten tweets actually do get any response.

33 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. aww... by metalmaster · · Score: 4, Funny

    I guess all the "i showered" "I dressed" "I got in the car" "I drove to work/school" ect... tales of peoples' day just arent *that* exciting

    1. Re:aww... by somersault · · Score: 5, Insightful

      just because something didn't get an answer, doesn't mean it was "ignored"..

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      which is totally what she said
    2. Re:aww... by c0mpliant · · Score: 3, Informative

      Its usually a good indication that they are ignored or virtually ignored. Perhaps they are read but they would be discarded as quickly as they are read, without any further discussion, comment or "nod of the head" as W B Yeats would say.

      As this comment will probably be.

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      There is no -1 disagree
    3. Re:aww... by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Funny

      just because something didn't get an answer, doesn't mean it was "ignored"..

      So, then tweets are like prayers?:

    4. Re:aww... by RulerOf · · Score: 3, Funny

      So, then tweets are like prayers?

      Not in the least. We will play Duke Nukem Forever.

      --
      Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
    5. Re:aww... by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Informative

      just because something didn't get an answer, doesn't mean it was "ignored"..

      The true stats are worse ... as I'll explain below:

      I am astounded by the claim that nearly three out of ten tweets actually do get any response.

      I'm not. "Social marketers" buy twitter accounts in bulk - ten cents apiece.

      Many of the "responses" are from one "bought" account to another to try to generate "buzz" - the true level is probably in the single digits.

    6. Re:aww... by somersault · · Score: 3, Funny

      Not exactly. The tweets at least have a chance of getting read..

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      which is totally what she said
    7. Re:aww... by martyros · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Its usually a good indication that they are ignored or virtually ignored.

      Not at all. I don't use Twitter, but the vast majority of Facebook posts I read I don't react to via Facebook. I still read them, and am glad that the person posted them. A smaller number I click "Like", but there's not much else to say. Only a handful do I ever comment on (which would be the "retweet" or "respond" option on twitter).

      That said, I found the signal-to-noise ratio on Twitter *much* lower... which is why I use FB instead. :-)

      --

      TCP: Why the Internet is full of SYN.

    8. Re:aww... by Culture20 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Its usually a good indication that they are ignored or virtually ignored.

      So the social rule on twitter is to always acknowledge receipt of any post? When someone says "I'm in section 2A of the stadium", you're supposed to tweet back "ack'd" instead of going to talk with them in person? If a twitterer gets any responses at all, ever, then that's a good indication that all of their stuff is being read by someone, but only a few things merit a response.

    9. Re:aww... by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't do twitter, but I thought the purpose of it was to actually READ the twits, rather than having to respond or forward them? If they're read then they have served their purpose and were not ignored.

      At some point, a conversation has to end. "meet me at the library", "ok, see you there", "ok, got your reply see you there too", "I already said that", "acknowledged", "shut up already", "shutting up now", "nm", "here's a pic of my cat"

  2. Not surprised by jareth-0205 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't really see why this is a particularly surprising statistic. So most Tweets are only read by users... Most Slashdot stories I don't reply to and only read, does that mean that Slashdot is somehow limited or has a large number of dead stories? Of course not, it's just that most people do lots more reading than writing.

    1. Re:Not surprised by MrMarket · · Score: 5, Funny

      Agreed. On /., a response increases the probability that the story was *not* read.

  3. Not the point by tpstigers · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why are we assuming that tweets are intended to net a response?

    1. Re:Not the point by symes · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why are we assuming that tweets are intended to net a response?

      Exactly - the thing I like about Twitter is that information can be disseminated passively by, for example, social and sports clubs but in a way that doesn't continually bombard email accounts with endless drivel. I can pop onto twitter and quickly skim to see what is what and not have to delete every damn message, as I do with with spam. So my response to twitter posts can be to go do something in the real world. Outside. A Tweet might even take me somewhere where there's no connectivity at all! So measuring value by retweets is franklly bonkers.

    2. Re:Not the point by Captain+Hook · · Score: 3, Informative

      tweeting isn't talking, it's a short/timely update of whats you are doing. Now you can question if thats is useful or not, and I'm not going to get into that arguement, but the idea that tweets are about 2 way communication just doesn't fit with what the service seems to be offering.

      --
      These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
    3. Re:Not the point by LordSnooty · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Twitter - perfecting the art of people talking at, rather than to, each other.

    4. Re:Not the point by JustOK · · Score: 3, Interesting

      case in point

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      rewriting history since 2109
    5. Re:Not the point by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Why would you talk without intending a response?

      I've been meaning to ask my mother-in-law that very question for years now.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  4. Seems low by cindyann · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In my case, 100% are ignored.

  5. Dumb title by jonescb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just because nobody replies to the tweet doesn't mean people aren't reading it.

    1. Re:Dumb title by arth1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Just because nobody replies to the tweet doesn't mean people aren't reading it.

      It doesn't mean that people are reading it either. And even when they do, they may be skimming through lots and lots of "tweets", and yours just wasn't worth paying attention to. I.e. you tweeted garbage, and people stepped over it.

      That said, I know at least one person who, when getting an IM call from someone, auto-opens the Twitter page for that account, so she can pretend she knew what was going on. Those shallow enough to use Twitter as a diary seem to think she actually reads their tweets regularly and gives half a damn.

      Me? I only look at "tweets" as part of investigations. That's more than enough. I couldn't care less whether "cute kitty is cute" or you listen to D.J. Anus.

  6. 'Not replied to' != 'ignored' by fridaynightsmoke · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You might as well say that X% of newspaper articles are 'ignored' because they don't generate letters to the Editor about them.

    I am NOT expressing any opinion on the subjective usefulness of the average tweet, however.

    --
    This is a substitute for a clever sig that fits within the maximum number of characters.
  7. Character limit by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 5, Funny

    The problem is that it's very difficult to fit what you want to say into 140 characters. Unless you're into text speak, you may find that y

    1. Re:Character limit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      RT @rik: The problem is that it's very difficult to fit what you want to say into 140 characters. Unless you're into text speak, you may fi

  8. They don't seem to understand the purpose by antifoidulus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you are using Twitter to have conversations you are doing it wrong. Back in the dinosaur age if something happened to you(passed a test got herpes whatever) you would actually have to phone/write several people saying the exact same thing. You weren't always looking for a response but just wanted to share the news. Thats what twitter is for. It's not really meant for deep conversations.

    1. Re:They don't seem to understand the purpose by value_added · · Score: 4, Funny

      Back in the dinosaur age if something happened to you(passed a test got herpes whatever) you would actually have to phone/write several people saying the exact same thing. You weren't always looking for a response but just wanted to share the news. Thats what twitter is for.

      No wonder I can't figure this twitter thing out. I'm out of school and don't have herpes.

  9. Surprised the percentage is that LOW by petes_PoV · · Score: 3, Interesting

    29% of tweets aren't ignored. That is an incredibly good hit rate, for what is essentially a write-only, vanity medium. Imagine if that same level of response could be replicated in real life: nearly one-third of the mutterings and grumbles that we hear all the time elicited a response (apart from "Oh, do shut up!") we'd spend all day engaged in pointless and empty conversations with complete strangers.

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  10. purpose by frozentier · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Twitter isn't designed for discussions, it's designed for announcements. If a weatherman makes an announcement that a tornado is forming north of a city, you wouldn't expect everyone - or anyone for that matter - to call him up and have a discussion about it.

  11. Simple, just use perfect compression recursively! by thijsh · · Score: 3, Funny

    1

    (Which is what you inevitably end up with after applying perfect compression that removes at least one bit with each pass).

    It can furthermore be stated that for Tweets this achieves near lossless compression.

  12. Re:Summary says it all by RobertLTux · · Score: 3, Insightful

    and how many times does the response go off channel??

    ie farm1785: SVR Gandalf ON FIRE
          farm1785: HLN ACTIVE PWR Discon rack 45
          [45 tweets from service monitors]
    none of these would be responded to by Twitter

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  13. Approaching 80-20 by srussia · · Score: 5, Informative

    Pareto strikes again!

    --
    Set your phasers on "funky"!
  14. Re:Simple, just use perfect compression recursivel by thijsh · · Score: 3, Informative

    You take it too seriously... I'm talking about the "perfect compression" that is up there with the "perpetuum mobile"... Every once in a while there is someone that absolutely believes they've found it (like this hit from Google) even though it's proven to be impossible.

  15. Sounds like... by binaryseraph · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdot.