Trends in Twitter Talk: Looking back to look forward

Dr Ruth PageUniversity of Leicester

rep22@le.ac.uk; @ruthtweetpage

Self branding and searchable talk

• Self branding (Marwick 2011) & micro-celebrity (Senft 2008)

• Searchable talk (Zappavigna 2011)

• Follower lists• Hashtags• Retweets• Links

Data sets

• 30 celebrity accounts• 30 ‘ordinary’ accounts• 30 corporate accounts• 2010-11: 90, 392 tweets• 2012: 87, 343 tweets• All publically available material, all English

language

Corporations• travel: @bluejet, @luxorlv, @southwestair, @british_airways,

@londonmidland, @connectbyhertz, @carnivalcruise• entertainment: @directv, @marvel, @travelchannel, @tvguide• food: @sainsburys, @waitrose, @tastidlite, @popeyeschicken,

@starbucks, @dunkindonuts, @wholefoods, @uktesco, @dunkindonuts

• technology: @emccorp, @itunesmusic, @dellcares, @costcomcares

• finance: @hoover, @hrblock, @zappos, @wachovia, @intuit• sport: @chargers, @chicagobulls• retail: @selfridges, @americanapparel, @karenmillen, @reiss,

@marksandspencer, @rubbermaid, @johnlewisretail.

List of celebrities

• Britney Spears, Ellen de Generes, Ladygaga, Oprah Winfrey, Demi Moore, Lilly Allen, Paris Hilton, Sarah Brown, Dita von Teese, Holly Willoughby, Dannii Minogue, Mischa Barton, Amanda Holden, Amy Lee, Katherine Jenkins

• Ashton Kutcher, Jimmy Fallon, Shaquille O’neill, Lance Armstrong, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stephen Fry, Dave Matthews, Jonathan Ross, Jamie Oliver, John Cleese, Philip Schofield, William Shatner, Andy Murray, Charlie Brookner, Boris Johnson

Status and Follower lists

Audiences: Follower lists

Types of Tweet

Distribution of tweet types (2010)

Celebrity Ordinary Corporate0

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Distribution of tweet types (2012)

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Modified Retweets

• When one member forwards a message from someone else to all their ‘followers’

• Reconfigures email forwarding• Involves two participants– Original author– Person who forwards + adds new material

• Turn-taking represented in reverse order– [Retweeter’s comment] RT [original message]

An example

Modified retweets over time

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Addressed messages and ‘politeness’

• Corporate accounts– For customer care– For social media outreach

• Distinctive language use (keyness)– Thanks/sorry/please/glad

• Politeness (Brown and Levinson 1987)and Face (Goffman 1959)– Face enhancing– Face threatening– Face saving

‘Thanks’ and ‘Sorry’

• Thanks – Face-enhancing– 4668 per million words (2010)– 6444 per million words (2012)

• Sorry– Face-saving– 1841 per million words (2010)– 1688 per million words (2012)

Thanks

Messages Updates Messages Updates Messages UpdatesCorporate Celebrity Ordinary

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Examples

• First 3 people to tweet a shot of themselves wearing American Apparel nail polish win some of our new summer colors! http://bit.ly/bMvh4d– @AmericanApparel Tue, 25 May 2010 20:02

• We've got our winners! Thanks for all the great nail polish entries! Winners, we'll DM you shortly!– @AmericanApparel Tue, 25 May 2010 21:00

Thanks

• As a closing formulae– Thanks + name– Thanks, BR xoxo

• Thanks for the...• Thanks to X for.....– Feeback, tweeting, sharing, reaching out, your

comment, letting me know, interest, posting, kind words

– Patience, support

Sorry

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Corporate Celebrity Ordinary

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Examples

• @username1 Sorry to hear you feel that way. Is there any particular reason why? Can I help?– @LondonMidland Thu, 09 Aug 2012 22:05

• @username2 oh. Yikes :( Really sorry about that - did you leave the store already?– @Starbucks Tue, 24 Jul 2012 19:38

Sorry

• As a closing formulae– @username3 No, we do not have pillows onboard

our planes, sorry!!• Sorry about/to hear about/for...– That/this– The (bad) experience, confusion, delay, issues,

(long) wait, transfers, queue, time spent, trouble, disappointment, embarrassment, frustration, inconvenience, hold up, problems

Rise of ‘Searchable Talk’:#Hashtags

• Originated as search terms used by updaters– Folksonomy

• Aggregate tweets about a particular topic or event (#scd, #xfactor, #occupy, #Libya)

• Idiomatic uses – Internet memes (#fail)– One-off creative expressions (#bbcwhatareyou)

• Hashtags used to increase visibility via trending topics (but now search algorithms changed so not needed)

Hashtags over time

• 2010– 9490 per million words

• 2012– 15160 per million words

Hashtags in 2010

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Hashtags in 2012

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Most frequent Hashtags (2012)

Rise of ‘Amplified Talk’

Celebrity Ordinary Corporate0

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Percentage of Updates with a link

20102012

Collapse of professional/personal

2010• Celebrities

– Material about themselves– Backstage access– Promotional material (e.g.

Competitions)

• Ordinary– Articles in their field– Own blogs

• Corporations– Own web sites– Promotional offers

2012• Celebrities

– More ‘backstage’ shots– More ‘personal life’ photos– ‘Gossip’ and ‘jokes’

• Ordinary– Some still reflect professional identity– But ‘personal life’ photos and general

interests (fashion, gardening, films, food, sport)

• Corporations– Own web sites– Audience engagement through

photosharing– Charitable work

General trends in links

• Multimodal– Photos, video

• Multi-platformed– Facebook groups,

Google plus– Pinterest– Tumblr– Instagram, Daily Booth,

VintageCam, Yfrog, Whosay

– Mobile Apps

Conclusions – the way forward?

• Make your talk searchable• Enrich and amplify your

talk• Increase face-enhancing

interactions• Increase your reach across

platforms• Increase authenticity (in a

professional way)• We will see.....drop back in

2014