Why People Twitter - in one word
The other day I sat down to write something about Twitter. I struggled with my thoughts, threw some words down, and came up with a question: “Why are you twittering?" I knew the answer people would give. I know Twitter, and I know the type of people who tweet. I know why my husband is on his iPhone flipping through tweets at 1:30 a.m. He insists on reading every tweet from every person he follows. Personally, I’m guilty of recently tweeting after midnight with a couple of people who tweet for major newspapers. So I know my husband and I are not the only ones afflicted with this social addiction.
Then I had a thought. Perhaps other people could confirm what I already knew. So I sent out the above tweet.
The responses were significant. People were passionate about their answers and wanted to be counted. One person DMd me seven times. She kept coming up with better words to express her passion. Actually, one of her suggestions was “addiction,” and maybe for her it really is.
The most popular reasons I received: People and Information.
People
Other words used: friends, connect, connecting and connectivity, camaraderie, companionship, hardcorestatusupdating, networking, relationships, audience, outreach, community, ewatercooler, engagement, rapport, and outreach.
Garnering nearly one-third of the votes, this was the most popular reason people gave for Twittering. This proves once again about the importance of human connections.
Information
Other words used: news, brainfuel, newsdrip, instant-info, infoshare, data, and insight.
This second most popular category received less than one-fourth of the votes. This surprised me. I really thought more people would be in it for the news and information. That's why my husband is reading in the middle of the night when he can't sleep. He follows several newspapers and other news organizations.
The next seven reasons/responses received less than 10 votes each, in the following order, starting with the most popular:
Learning
Other words used: listen, education, research, and scoop.
Conversation
Other words used: communication and dialogue.
Fun
Other words used: entertainment, humor, and diversion
Voyeurism
Other words used: G2 (military shorthand for intelligence), nosy, and curiosity.
Job
Other words used: job-hunt.
Inspiration
Other words used: none
Then there were a bevy of words mentioned only once and not fitting any of the above categories:
Speed, spontaneity, stimulant, strategy, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, thrive, tonic, tool, tweet, value, variety, vital, life, whisper, ADD, access, addiction, America, attention, BFF, notoriety, omniscient, opinion, perspective, PR, fortune, clients, collaboration, hoping, procrastination, you (me!), advertising, venting, work, massmarket, opportunities, branding, and recession.
The findings are interesting. I certainly would not have dreamed that only one person would say “marketing” or “branding.” Especially since at least half the people in my twitterville are in some form of marketing and PR. But maybe I shouldn't be surprised since PR and marketing are -- at its roots -- about people. And I could say the same for Twitter. Twitter 'is' people.
