A study of the micro-blogging site Twitter has found 40 per cent of the messages sent are 'pointless babble'. Pear Analytics, who undertook the research, found 40 per cent of people used Twitter for 'pointless babble', nearly 38 per cent used it for 'conversational' tweets, and only 8.7 per cent of tweets were for 'Pass-Along Value'.The study, which looked into why people used the site, found people were more likely to re-Tweet at 11:30am, particularly on Mondays. Self-promotion and spam made up 5.85 per cent and 3.75 per cent of Tweets.
The study concluded that: "With the new face of Twitter, it will be interesting to see if they take a heavier role in news, or continue to be a source for people to share their current activities that have little to do with everyone else. We will be conducting this same study every quarter to identify other trends in usage."
Ryan Kelly, founder of Pear Analytics, said on his blog: "Some felt it was their source of news and articles, others felt it was just a bunch of self-promotion with very few folks actually paying attention. But mostly, many people still perceive Twitter as just mindless babble of people telling you what they are doing minute-by-minute; as if you care they are eating a sandwich at the moment."
The study, conducted in America, also discovered conversational tweets were high between 14:00 and 16:00 in the afternoon, and heaviest on Tuesdays. Researchers concluded: "Most people are busy on Monday catching up with work, so perhaps it takes until Tuesday to get into the swing of Twittering again".
