Weinergate, New Link Shortener & Twitter In ‘Real Life’: Top 10 Twitter Stories Of The Week

Need a little weekend reading? We’ve compiled our top ten stories of the week, which includes a political scandal involving a Congress member (and the aftermath-induced shrinkage), new data on who exactly is using Twitter (and how), official link shortening coming to Twitter.com, tips on overcoming Twitter addiction, and a hilarious video that reminds us of the sheer absurdity of our social media behaviour... when applied to ‘real’ life. Here are our top 10 Twitter stories of the week: 1. The Weinergate Effect – Twitter Use Down 28% By Lawmakers Following Scandal [INFOGRAPHIC] On May 27, 2011, when Rep. Anthony Weiner accidentally sent a link via Twitter which contained a very public photograph of a specific (and unwelcome) kind of Congress member, he couldn’t have begun to imagine the damage this incident would cause not only to his career, but to the prolificness of all lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, who were active on Twitter. A new study from TweetCongress.org has analysed the rate of tweets before and after the Weiner scandal, and uncovered an interesting, if perhaps not entirely unsurprising fact: the total number of tweets across all congressmen is down 28%. 2. The Who, Why And How Of Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC] Last week we looked at updated research from Symosos that took a detailed look at the Twitter ecosystem, suggesting that the network was increasingly skewing towards a male, non-white demographic, and that some 13% of all online adults in the USA were now active on the platform. Now, a new infographic has taken a deeper look at Twitter’s infrastructure, citing data from several sources, and revealing information on the who, why and how we use Twitter. 3. Twitter (Finally) Adds Automatic Link Shortening To Twitter.com If you’ve been holding your breath for this one, go ahead and exhale: Twitter has finally added an automatic link shortening feature to Twitter.com. 4. Are You Addicted To Twitter? Here’s How To Fight It Twitter is like a drug, in many ways: it gives your brain a short-term thrill that you look for over, and over again. It alters your behavior as you seek the pleasure hits a retweet gives you. And it sometimes negatively impacts other areas of your life. Without help, you might become a total Twitter addict – believe me, we’ve seen it happen. 5. If Twitter And Facebook Were Real Life [VIDEO] Ever thought about how bizarre, strange and downright surreal your online life is, particularly within the world of social media? What if we applied those some habits and practices to the offline world? For example, can you imagine constantly asking people you don’t really know to be your friend, and hoping they’ll be convinced when they see your personal photos? Or telling someone pretty random that you’re now ‘following’ them… and hoping they’ll follow you back? Or going around announcing to everyone how much you like everything? And openly sharing your relationship status!? 6. 12% Of Twitter’s Q1 Ad Revenue Came From Auto Industry New insight into Twitter’s ad program, officially dubbed Promoted Products, shows that the auto industry is one of the largest single industries gobbling up Promoted Tweets, Trends and Accounts: it alone accounted for 12% of Twitter’s revenue in Q1 of this year. 7. What Words Do Men Use On Twitter More Often Than Women? Women aren’t from Venus and as far as I know men aren’t from Mars, but there are some differences between the two genders when it comes to Twitter. Tweetolife is a cool little web app that will show you how often men use a word of your choice on Twitter compared to women, in an intriguing look at how the two genders approach 140-character communication differently. 8. Twitter Awareness Is At 92%, But Actual Usage Is Only 8% It looks like Twitter still has a way to go before it hits the mainstream. A new study from eMarketer shows that Twitter awareness in the general US population is at 92%, but that only about 8% of those examined actually use the service. 9. 90% Of Twitter Is Just Showing Up It’s not enough to just set up a profile and expect wonderful things to start to happen, as if by magic. Twitter, like life, doesn’t work that way. You need to do the work, and you need to put in the hours. And the good news? 10. Twitter Accounts For 11% Of Click-Throughs On Shared Content When it comes to content that’s shared around the web, Twitter is among the major forces driving click-throughs. While it doesn’t quite compare to Facebook, Twitter does send just about the same percentage of click-throughs on shared content as email does – and email has decades on Twitter. Did you know we have a newsletter? Sign-up to receive a daily digest of all things Twitter, sent straight to your inbox. Click here to sign up for the AllTwitter Newsletter.

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Weinergate, New Link Shortener & Twitter In ‘Real Life’: Top 10 Twitter Stories Of The Week

Shea Bennett

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Shea Bennett