Online Social Network Stats

The Harvard Business Review conducted a random study in May 2009 of 300,542 Twitter users.

*Of the sample, 80% follow or are followed by at least one user

vs.
only 60-65% of other social network members have at least one member

*Men and women follow a similar number of people
but
men have 15% more followers then women
and
men reciprocate a follow more often then women
{odd because:}
*Women are a bit higher majority of users at 55%

*A man is almost twice as likely to follow another man then a woman
and
a woman is 25% more likely to follow a men then a woman

* Results can not be explained by number of tweets
because
men and woman tweet the same amount

*Over half of Twitter users tweet only once every 74 days

* "the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets"

* "men and women find the content produced by other men on Twitter more compelling than on a typical social network, and men find the content produced by women less compelling"

The results of this study are very surprising because, past research of other social networks, has found opposite results:

* Top 10% of users account for 30% of usage
*Women are more likely to use social networking services(SNSs)
*Men receive little attention from other men

However, there are other studies that suggest:

*Men are much more likely to have multiple social networking services
*Women are more likely to use SNSs to foster connections
*Women are more likely to specifically name their best friend
*Of the men who blog about their romantic relationship, they use just as strong expressions as women
*Women are much more likely to have private profiles
*Women are more likely to maintain up to date pictures

Basically, I think we can take from this: a lot more research has to be done :)

{for more information, and graph credits, please click here}