Where Does Your Tweet Go?

NEWS
Jun 9, 2010

Originally published on June 9th on the Yahoo Advertising Blog by Jeff Sweat, Blog Editor Yahoo Labs research scientist Duncan Watts brought some serious thinking to InternetWeek yesterday when he explained for the Mashable audience the science behind social media. Yahoo has extensively analyzed Twitter streams—what gets tweeted and retweeted—and found that “99% of tweets don’t go anywhere,” Duncan said. While that may seem like bad news, it actually can be good news for marketers if they learn how to harness the power of a lot of average tweeters rather than one big powerhouse. Duncan said that Twitter makes a great environment for social scientists, because it involves human interactions that are measurable. He talked about how difficult it can be to predict what will go viral on the Web or not—but that the data gathering made possible by Twitter is making it easier to know what might succeed. For more on that, watch the video below:

To watch Duncan's presentation, click here.