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Micro-blogging service Twitter remains the preserve of a few, despite the hype surrounding it, according to research.

Just 10% of Twitter users generate more than 90% of the content, a Harvard study of 300,000 users found.

Estimates suggest it now has more than 10 million users and is growing faster than any other social network.

However, the Harvard team found that more than half of all people using Twitter update their page less than once every 74 days.
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Written by nialldevitt
439 days ago

Hi Shawn, thank you for your excellent observations. These are top notch points.

Lyceum, thanks for the heads up, I will be sure to check out the post.

Regards,

Niall
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Written by lyceum
441 days ago

"Just 10% of Twitter users generate more than 90% of the content." It is an example of the 80/20 (Pareto principle) rule again! I think you will have a big bunch of "lurkers" until they find out how to use microblogging for their own use. Personally speaking, it took me a long time before I "got" it... Please read my post, WHAT AM I DOING ON TWITTER? of 12/09/2008.
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Written by ShawnHessinger
442 days ago

Two obvious takeaways here:

1. To answer Mr. Heil's question, no, the idea that visitors are using an online tool for something other than the purpose for which it was intended is not a problem. Only people completely ignoring the tool would be a problem. This is an idea often expressed by startup guru Guy Kawasaki, but when you think about it, history bears it out.

2. If the study is true (one wonders how researchers could find most people only "tweet" once in a lifetime when presumably the people they are talking about aren't dead yet)it suggests the medium might be far more useful for simple broadcast. Given the popularity of "passive" use, such a tool could be quite lucrative if access to such large audiences could be monetized.
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