by Kimba the Twitter Professor… hehe.
Taking a break from my normal cooking / eating routine… I felt I needed to share my recent #twitterexperiment results on my blog because it is IMPOSSIBLE to fit all these findings within 140 characters!
Recently, I did the #twitterexperiment to find out:
- How often people check their Twitter
- If they use Twitter to read timelines (and interact) or just to tweet / promote something
Before I go on, here are some facts:
I have 1,234 followers on Twitter and I am following 1,174 people.
I conducted the experiment by tweeting this at 1.00pm:
“If you’re reading this tweet, please reply with a nod #twitterexperiment“
> > > Within the first 30 minutes, I got 10 replies.
Then I tweeted again at 1.30pm:
“If you’re reading this tweet (and haven’t nodded already), please reply with a nod #twitterexperiment“
> > > I got 6 replies.
And then at 2.00pm:
“If you’re reading this tweet (and haven’t nodded already), please reply with a nod #twitterexperiment > 1 more hour b4 i reveal results!“
> > > I got 4 replies.
And finally at 2.30pm:
“If you’re reading this tweet (and haven’t nodded already), please reply with a nod #twitterexperiment > LAST 30 MINUTES!“
> > > I got my last 3 replies.
Before the experiment, I assumed it was impossible for me to expect my 1,234 followers to ALL read my tweets. It was impossible, no way.
Because, if you’re like me, if you follow lots of people, you will read tweets only from your lists. That’s what I do, and I have less than 100 people in each list… easier for me to keep up.
So, I predicted that because I’m listed in 74 lists, and excluding people who are sleeping (different timezones), busy, not checking tweets, etc… I should have at least 30-40 responses to be realistic.
I got 23 responses in total. Not bad. So I’ve come to some conclusions based on this experiment.. LISTEN UP!!
Conclusion #1:
People following >1,000 people only reads timeline WHEN ONLINE, no backtracking. Too many tweets. So if you want their attention, you will need to mention them.
Conclusion #2:
People following <100 people are more likely to read ALL your tweets throughout the day, or when they catch up on tweets at the end of the day.
Conclusion #3:
People following >1,000 people but maintain good lists of <100 per list, are likely to read SOME of your tweets, and ONLY WHEN ONLINE. So they might not reply straightaway, but if they like what you tweet, you’ll get a reply like hours even a day later, when they’re done “catching up”. This is why I get a reply for #twitterexperiment even AFTER the time block of 2 hours is done.
Conclusion #4:
I’ve sent 4 tweets about the same thing in 2 hours. I’ve noticed some people (who are following me and I’m following them) tweet even more than I did within those 2 hours, but did not respond. These are the people who ONLY tweet / reply mentions.. but don’t read timelines AT ALL. They might:
- not feel like it at the time
- be in a venting mode only
- just ignored me and not care, lol
- have not listed me and therefore did not see my tweets
So basically, those are just a few theories based on today’s experiment. Just a bit of fun on a Friday afternoon 🙂
So which conclusion best describes you?
Kimba's Living 
Interesting experiment.. sometimes I only have time to tweet myself..and then I will go back and read everyones tweets..as you say on my lists later.. I think it also depends on what you tweet.. I could tweet crunchie vs violet crumble and get 50 replies within 30 minutes.. but if i tweeted something a little deeper chances are i'd get no replies.. You learn to scan read a lot..and it proves that if you do get a mention or a retweet it was well deserved!
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@HieroHero I totally agree with your theory there too! Thanks for the comment, I consider it a valuable contribution towards the experiment!! Hehe 🙂
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