CorpComms Magazine

Four out of ten tweets are 'pointless babble' sending messages such as 'I am eating a sandwich', according to a new report by American research agency Pear Analytics.

The report follows a two-week study when Pear Analytics captured 2,000 tweets in half hour increments over a six-hour period. The tweets were then categorised into six areas.

But while 'pointless babble' accounted for 40.55 per cent of total tweets, Pear Analytics found that 37.55 per cent were 'conversational' as tweets went back and forth between participants.

Indeed, conversational tweets are heavy between 2pm and 4pm and at their highest on Tuesdays. Retweets, which begin with RT, were categorised as 'Pass along value', and accounted for 8.7 per cent of all tweets. The most frequent tweets with 'Pass along value' occurred at 11.30am, particularly on Mondays, which Pear Analytics suggested would be the best time for users to send out tweets that they wish to be retweeted, although there was another spike in retweets between 4pm and 4.30pm every day.

Pointless babble   40.55 per cent

Conversational     37.55 per cent

Pass along value  8.7 per cent

Spam                       3.75 per cent

News                       3.6 per cent

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