The Bloggin’ BUZZ

Deidre’s Social Media Soapbox

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten on my soapbox and I’ve been itching to get up on it since I read about the Twitter Research conducted by Harvard Business School.

I referenced this study in my newsletter two weeks ago. If you haven’t had a chance to read this Twitter Research conducted by Harvard Business School earlier this month, I think you’ll find it quite interesting. Though, I have to admit, based on the results, I came to a couple of different conclusions or rather interpreted some of the information differently than the researchers did.

In May of 2009, the researchers examined a random sample of over 300,000 users. They came up with numerous statistics, but I am going to focus primarily on the following three:

• 80% – are connected to at least one other user (as compared to other networks where only 60-65% are connected)
• 55% – of Twitter users are women
• 15% – women have 15% less followers than their male counterparts

Let’s take the first statistic:

80% – are connected to at least one other user (as compared to other networks where only 60-65% are connected)

According to the researchers, this suggests that users “understand how Twitter works” but that users of other networks don’t necessarily understand how they work. To some extent that may be true, but I would argue that it’s because Twitter is more straightforward in its function.

Here’s what I mean.

On most networks, there are MANY options for functionality. There are widgets, applications, games – not to mention, a “bazillion” questions to answer just to get your profile completed! Twitter? Nope. No widgets, applications, games or questions. Instead, you get 160 characters for your profile and one hyperlink. That’s it! Plain and simple. Nothing to wade through and understand. Oh, and with nothing else to do but connect and talk, guess what? That’s what most people do.

Yeah, I didn’t find that surprising at all.

55% – of Twitter users are women

The Harvard researchers did not mention anything in direct relation to this statistic (as far as why there were more women on Twitter), but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Why?

Well, I thought it was worth mentioning that I believe that there are more women than men because it’s “social” media. And most of the women that I know understand the value of being social. We like to buy from people we know, like and trust. I think men do as well, but I think that women put a lot more credence into the philosophy than men do. Yep, and there it is.

15% – women have 15% less followers than their male counterparts

This one I find the most interesting, because it has been highlighted in so many different ways by bloggers. In fact, the title of the post for this study was entitled, “New Twitter Research: Men Follow Men and Nobody Tweets“. This is obviously titled this way for hype, but some people have taken the title and made assumptions. In fact, I’ve seen and heard this study referenced by people stating that women aren’t active on Twitter at all and that it’s dominated by men (another reason that I mentioned that more women are on Twitter than men).

In fact, if you read the analysis of the study on the Harvard Business School blog, Harvard makes an interesting observation stating that “men also have more reciprocated relationships, in which two users follow each other. This ‘follower split’ suggests that women are driven less by followers than men, or have more stringent thresholds for reciprocating relationships.”

I don’t think that it’s a matter of one OR the other. I believe that women, in general, are not driven by numbers AND are more discerning about who they follow. So the question that should come to your mind is, “Why?”

Here’s my answer. The numbers mean nothing.

Really.

Now, if your a man reading this post, you are probably scoffing at me right now, that’s okay. But after you finish scoffing, you have to admit…men are more driven by data and statistics than the average woman. Right? And that’s okay, it’s what makes the world go round.

Here’s my proof: to the average man, if I told you I could get you 10,000 followers in 15 days, that would excite you. Come on, admit it, that would excite you and I’m not going to hold it against you.

A woman on the other hand would say, “But why would I want that? In fact, why would I follow someone just because they follow me? Why would I follow someone that doesn’t offer value in terms of information or a relationship?”

Yes! And those are great questions! Most women are going to grow their following a little slower…not because they’re not interested in the value of Twitter, but because of the value that they place on being “social” and not a reciprocating number or follower, but a reciprocating relationship.

Well, there it is. If you would like to read the original blog post by Harvard, feel free to read it in its entirety right here.

AND, I would love to hear what you think. Am I off my rocker? Or right on the money? Let’s talk about it! Leave your comments below to let me know what you’re thinking!

Deidre Hughey

Enjoy the rant? Here’s a couple more you might like:
Get Refreshed!
What’s Your Personal Brand?
What Social Media Will Not Do For You – Video

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Deidre's Social Media Soapbox, Tweet This!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.