I had been on Twitter for a couple of months, attended a minor tweetup organised by Netra before I saw a tweet from @90di that got me thinking.
Trying to find out the methodology got me nowhere, but I decided to run an experiment myself rather to amuse myself and if possible understand what makes Twitter tick here.
From the 5th May 2009 to 13th June 2009 whilst the experiment continued I was No Rank – 90’s – 60’s – 20’s sub 10’s with a final high of sub 03 for nearly 5-6 days.
As @90di commented that “Usual Suspects” contained ShaaqT Gul Panag Keeda Shashi Tharoor amongst others; so was in real august Indian Tweeter company.
Now here is where I presumed the following:
- Some of the names on the list came up, due to followers talking about them
- Some of the names on the list came up because they followed norms laid down by twitter:)
- Some of the names came up the list because they were trend setters/followers like Keeda
My experiment was divided into 3 parts:
1) Break into the first 100 Indian Twitters
2) Break into the first 30 Indian Twitters
3) Finally, break into top 10 for a period of week or more.
1) Break into the first 100 Indian Twitters
- After analysing my tweets – used some of the applications – but could not make head or tail out of it so finally relied on myself.
- Realized that Twitter advocates being yourself, which is fine but so does Indian Democracy – then why in spite of cribbing et all we elect the same politicians – because in spite of voters changing the politicos remain the same.
- But, how do you be yourself – if the nick is something else & your name is something else – luckily that did not affect me.
- Having been a hoarder of some text; thoughts; jokes or all bundled as gyan decided to share this with the tweeters, of course hoping for a couple of shoutdowns.
- Parallel started following some known names that looked good from their bio – this helped in retweets
- From April 3 to May 25 I jumped from 150 to 400 odd followers that included a whole lot of bots & people based out of India who did not have any kind of interaction with me.
- Slowly I found myself inching up the scale to speak till I finally broke in on the 5th May
2) Break into the first 30 Indian Twitters
- Then it became tougher to break in with a wide variety of variations floating around.
- Started tweeting seriously – bit of gyan; news with comments; interacting; replying.
- Finally I thought I was ready to conclude the experiment around the 30th May & so the final push began.
3) Finally, break into top 10 for a period of week or more.
- Had prepared a fair amount of interactive tweets for different days
- Worked on the background that would make people want to RT
- Some completely new thoughts that could be shared with a variety of groups
- Heavy interaction in terms of replies; help; DM everything.
And, hence managed to conclude it successfully. My personal findings:-
- Irrespective of how “be yourself” you are, perceptions matter
- Most of the followers do not read your bio, go thru your blog before deciding to follow you. Only your Tweets matter.
- A great Blogger may not be a great Tweeter & vice versa
- Common searchable knowledge is tweeted by everyone; try something that is personally relevant.
- The pareto principle applies here also.
- Whilst PR; Advertising – online & offline; media; brands talk about Social Media & recently Twitter, fact is how relevant to daily life, work environment are the top 100 twitters that is crucial
- If a chunk keep talking about just technology, crib about government & civic the feeling is ‘Hey we read & listen to this all the time’ Tell us how Twitter can help us.
- Irrespective of whether you may live it, love it, hate it fact remains that it is MLM, with of course no transactions involved.
- Everyone eventually manages to create a pyramid or a banyan tree which helps them & all their connections, mostly always in a positive manner.
- Embrace it as another channel, medium – it shall deliver results. Remember as somebody said “The use of electronic networks and associated technologies is to enable, improve, enhance, transform or invent a business process or business system to create superior value for current or potential customers.”
- AND Finally remember with the right approach, attitude & bit of hardwork you can overcome the System i.e. Twitter:)
Approximate data has been taken from Twitterholic & 90di I hereby acknowledge that I have not been guided by any Social Media Agencies, Gurus; but am thankful to the everyday tweeters who made this possible.
Great gyan as usual.. i was scratching my heads as to wat re the criteria that 90di look for in choosing popular tweeters… coz i myself had managed to be on top hundred and top twenty… but its fun on twitter, to get to know people you haven’t met b4, haven’t spoken with b4 n yet share thoughts and views and even make topics trend together… kudos to social media ….
What is “overcome Twitter”?? What is the real measure of success? Followers cannot be it.
What is really needed is a case study in making a business objective happen. It may be sales. Or it may not be.
Very honestly, while this is an interesting study, I am not able to really draw any serious help from this, for a business strategy.
Maybe it does require a tweetup after all, to understand some of these better.
Also by the way, with reference to an earlier study of Indian brands on social media, where again, Twitter was used as one of the critical benchmarks, I do wonder about the over dependence on Twitter as a measure of social media success. There are way many other activities that a social media strategy could include.
Anyway, more at a tweetup…whenever it happens, with or without daru 🙂
This is an interesting analysis 🙂
Am I glad to know one of the top 10 twitter users in India?
Nice one.. since I also started using twitter everyday since one month and started watching that 90di ranking once a week… its easy to get into top 100..
those points are great but i think its true only for Indian twitter community where i think top 1000 twitter users do around 90% of tweet.
Facebook Orkut are social media for connecting friends but twitter is still one confusion for Indian users.
Lets see where these social media takes us…
Hey Anagh,
Great analysis. And glad that the twitter toy we have was of some use to you.
All the best,
Khushnood
Hey Anagh,
Great Analysis. And glad that the twitter toy we have was of some use to you.
All the best!
I-N-T-E-R-E-S-T-I-N-G !
Hi Anagh,
Hope you are fine, it was great to read your
report.
Huseini
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