This Tech Tuesday question is a very technical one. I know we've created a blog here to explain technologies for non-techies so that everyone can learn how to use the latest digital technologies for effective ministry. But, this one has been stewing on my back burner, so I thought I'd check the wisdom of crowds here:
How does the Twitter following algorithm work? That is, in what order are the little profile pictures displayed?
Is it chronological, based on the order when I started following someone? Or, is it random? I'm pretty sure it's not. Or what?
If the list of people I'm following and the list of my followers were in an order that we could know, or better, if we could sort it, that could be really meaningful.
But, what does all this have to do with ministry? Here's some possible uses in a ministry context:
- You're able to identify who are the early influencers
- Invest in the influencers' leadership development
- Keep influencers connected with you so they spread important messages for you
How else could you use this information?
Aside, other Twitter information gatherers: Twitterfacts.blogspot.com is an unofficial blog about Twitter, which periodically posts in its State of the Twitosphere category with Twitter statistics in specific countries. Stats include number of Twitter accounts, public vs. private, human vs. non-human, followers, updates (tweets). I'm waiting for a State of the Twitosphere in the United States. Closest one is Canada.
twitterposter.com has a visual representation of Twitterers with large number of followers. http://twitdir.com/ is a Twitter directory with top followed, top updaters, top followers. To search tweets, use search.twitter.com (formerly Summize). Twitterverse has an interactive Flash visual to show how Twitters are connected.
-- DJ Chuang, Leadership Network
Finally! Someone brave enough to ask the important questions!
I asked this of our newest contributor, Tony Steward, when I was with him recently and we flushed out options... most tweets in total, most frequent tweets, friend added order, most followers, etc.
None pan out; I've eliminated each, I think. Course Twitter's not up long enough for me to read the entire FAQ page.
And lastly, DJ, thanks again for convincing me to tweet.
Posted by: Cynthia | July 22, 2008 at 07:00 PM
I've always thought that Twitter sorted the follower list by date joined. But I don't know that it always jives that way. I think it's just common that people tend to follow others fairly early in their account as they get "set up" looking for everyone they know.
I completely agree that it is an issue that needs addressing. Huge question marks as to the thought process behind it (if said process ever existed in the first place. :)
Posted by: David Russell | July 22, 2008 at 10:08 PM
@davidrussell Not possible. I've got a follower in one of my top two rows who just joined! Date joined hypothesis fails.
More importantly - how do we users end up with customization features so we control who appears in what order?
PS - obvi. I would put @markbatterson in a top row.
Posted by: Cynthia | July 22, 2008 at 10:31 PM
Cynthia You might at least enjoy the groups feature in TweetDeck. It allows you to organize those you follow and can really help filter out some of the b-class information that is passing through. You can easily group your top tweeps together and have quick access to them.
I do agree, though, that Twitter should have native features for organizing information.
Posted by: David | July 23, 2008 at 08:58 AM
I think we need the advice of @Problogger.
Posted by: Cynthia | July 23, 2008 at 12:26 PM
I sent an email to Twitter support this morning asking them to explain. I'll follow up here if I receive a reply from them.
Posted by: David | July 23, 2008 at 01:18 PM
Fairly definitive response from Twitter support:
Hi David,
Users are ordered by user ID. You can find this in the rss feed. We do this because it's the least intensive on the database. Unfortunately, it doesn't make it easy for people. We'll order it in a way that makes sense again, but I'm not sure when. Once upon a time, it was alphabetical.
Cheers,
Crystal
Posted by: David Russell | July 23, 2008 at 07:32 PM
David, thanks so much for finding the answer! I'm glad Twitter is considering what makes their functions less database-intensive.
Looks like the database on followers was cleaned up yesterday, maybe a bit too well. I read somewhere they were cleaning out spam twitterers, but some real twitterers are getting disconnected from each other. I've lost over 100 followers myself.
Posted by: djchuang | July 24, 2008 at 03:39 PM
Well, now I know. Thanks for doing the sleuthing. ID# - Who knew?
Good food for thought regarding early adapters/influencers.
http://twitter.com/CherylSmith999
Posted by: Cheryl Smith | July 24, 2008 at 10:52 PM