by Search Copywriter
K. Todd
K. Todd
When US market research company Pear Analytics released a study that concluded 40 per cent of Twitter updates could be classified as "pointless babble", it's possible that a backlash should've been expected.That's what's happened, in any case, as a plethora of insulted Twitter users flocked to the web in order to voice their anger over the accusation. A series of tweets and blog updates have appeared in response to the survey, and not many of them have managed to utilise only the kindest of words.
"Pointless babble?" CNet blogger Chris Matyszczyk wrote, "[t]o a number-cruncher, perhaps. But when did number-crunchers ever tickle the soul?"
TechCrunch called the research a "silly study" and went on to argue that what some people consider worthless jabber is actually very useful to others. "Pointless babble is in the eye of the beholder," it added.
One thing that Pear Analytics might learn from this event is that it ought to choose its words more carefully, particularly as it is planning to repeat the study every quarter and report on the results. With six categories for the tweets it pulled from the site this time around, "pointless babble" is the only one that would really cause any offence - but given how Twitter is widely used for such updates, the variety of which include tweets like "going to the cinema" and "my new books arrived", was it really a wise move to deem them all "pointless"?
Still, it is interesting to see the results - which included insight about how nearly the same amount of tweets could be classified as "conversational" - where users treated the network as a substitute instant messaging service - as those that were "pointless babble". 8.7 per cent were considered to be highly repeatable and the spam count was low, with just 3.75 per cent of tweets deemed as junk messages.
Interestingly, 5.85 per cent of tweets were "self-promotional" - those created by companies or individuals on a business-related basis, elucidating how organisations are increasingly turning to Twitter for brand and product promotion.
