How Many Tweets Could A Tweeter Tweet If A Tweeter Could Tweet, Tweet

DJ Smith / Aug 17th / Comments

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” That’s certainly a warning that everyone using Twitter would do well to heed. Research conducted by Pear Analytics bears evidence of that fact when they found that 40% of what gets posted to Twitter is ‘pointless babble.’

But what does this mean to you as an upstanding citizen of the Twittersphere? It means you need to consider what you’re posting to Twitter if you’re trying to increase your influence on your given target. There’s probably no better categorization of your tweets than those created for the Pear Analytic report. So, think about your latest tweets. Which category do they fall into?

News

Do you find yourself becoming one of the many Twitter news anchors ready with the latest and greatest news story? Are you quick to give traffic updates to weary travelers in your area? If so, your tweets will likely fall into the news category. Out of the number studied by Pear Analytics, 3.60% of all tweets fall into this category.

Self-Promotion

Are your tweets plugging your latest service, book, or philosophy? Do your tweets read like a weekly grocery store flyer complete with coupons for Twitter followers only? If so, you fall into the self-promo category. This category accounted for 5.85% of the tweets studied.

Conversational

Some Tweeters use their tweets as a near-instant messaging service. Their tweets come across more like, well, a conversation between two or more individuals. If your tweets fall into this category then you account for 37.55% of all tweets conducted in the study.

Pass Along Value

If your tweets start with “RT” then you’re likely a candidate for the Pass Along Value category. These viral tweets spread interesting links, ideas, quotes, and general knowledge to other followers. This category accounted for some 8.70% of those tweets studied.

Spam

If you actively engage in showing people how they can “learn to get 400,000 followers in an hour” with some revolutionary concept then you’re likely in this dreadful category which accounts for 3.75%.

Pointless Babble

The Pointless Babble tweets are those where you are tweeting just to be tweeting. They include comments such as “I just sharpened my pencil” or “I just drank my second cup of coffee.” While these tweets have no value they account for a whopping 40.55% of the tweets Pear Analytics studied.

Pear Analytics admitted that they felt if the study were conducted over a longer period of time the Pointless Babble and Conversational categories would trade places or at least even out. Regardless, you have to be aware of what sort of communication you are doling out through Twitter. If you don’t understand that the tweets you post do a great deal to build or tear down your reputation as a trusted resource then you are tweeting ‘pointless babble.’ Winston Churchill said it best when he said, “When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.” You need to take inventory of your tweets and see if you’re demonstrating the excellence of an eagle or simply tweeting like a parrot with its foot hung.

Until next time… keep your pulse strong.