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Just 36 per cent of tweets are considered 'worth reading' by followers while one in four are 'not worth reading' and 39 per cent generate indifference, according to an academic study of Twitter content.

'Given that users actively choose to follow these accounts it is striking that so few of the tweets are actively liked,' states the Who gives a tweet? Evaluating microblog content value study.

It found that 'questions to follower' tweets are 2.8 times more likely to be rated as worth reading than neutral, while those that just indicated the tweeter's status, such as 'Hello Twitter!', had a 45 per cent likelihood of being described as 'not worth reading'.

Users primarily valued Twitter as an information resource; of tweets deemed 'worth reading', almost half were described as 'informative' while 24 per cent were funny.

The study's authors asked just over 1,400 Twitter followers to rank almost 44,000 tweets issued between 30 December 2010 and 17 January 2011 using its proprietary 'Who Gives a Tweet' app. A sample of 4,220 rated tweets from users who rated at least ten tweets were then assigned one of nine categories, ranging from 'self promotion' to 'random thought' and 'information sharing'.

The study found that followers particularly dislike tweets falling into the 'presence maintenance', in which tweeters disclosed their status or location, 'conversation' and 'me now', where tweeters disclose moods or activities, categories.

Indeed, fewer than one in four 'me now' tweets were deemed to be worth reading. 'One might reasonably expect followers to be interested in personal details. However, this does not seem to be the case,' said the authors. 'We found many cases in which the follower was not interested by the tweeter's life details...there is a special hatred for Foursquare location check-ins.'

The most liked categories were 'question to followers', 'information sharing' and 'self-promotion'.

The study also considered why certain tweets were valued, asking users who ranked them to assign reasons, such as arrogant, boring, depressing or exciting. Just under seven out of ten tweets to receive a ranking were tagged with at least one reason.

But 82 per cent of tweets rated as 'not worth reading' were described as 'boring' with users complaining about old news, inadequate explanations of links or photos or a lack of context.  Tweets that included too many hashtags and @mentions were also criticised, with the suggestion that direct messages were often more appropriate.

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