Monthly Archives: March 2013

The Twitter Passion of Touré

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If Esquire ever puts Touré on the cover of its magazine, it’s going to need to re-stage its iconic 1968 cover photo of Muhammad Ali.  Not in the ironic sense that they’ve done it lately, but in a sincere sense that it’s appropriate.  For there are few people who suffer the volume of unrelenting criticism, insult, and anger that is leveled at him on Twitter.   That activity tells us a great deal about social media’s nasty side, and is a cautionary tale for anyone who views social media as merely a sort of chatty email.

To get a sense of that nasty side, it’s interesting to do some statistical analysis on the Tweets he receives.  Using the last week’s activity on Twitter as a sample, I discovered some interesting things.  

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#UniteBlue continues strong on Twitter

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As I’ve written before, one of the interesting things to have happened on Twitter is the #UniteBlue website and its ability to amplify the voices of liberals.  By encouraging people of a like political mind to follow each other, it allows its members to gain in Twitter stature (or, Klout, if you must).

It’s hard to measure the impact its had (just because of the sheer number of members), but it is interesting to see how the conversation about #UniteBlue is doing on Twitter:

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Click to Enlarge

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We Don’t Got Ed (Schultz)

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The announcement over a week ago that Ed Schultz would be moving his show to weekends came as a bit of a shock, especially since he did one more show before departing the airwaves.  It seemed hasty and poorly planned, without a really good (or believable) explanation for what happened or an actual date of when the weekend show will start beyond “April” (for those of us in the software business, a mention of just a month for a target date instinctively produces the cynical response “of which year?”).

Needless to say, this news set off a shockwave on Twitter:

Click on image to make it as big as Ed's heart!

Click on image to make it as big as Ed’s heart!

On the day of the announcement, conversation to & about Ed reached levels not since since the fall election.  And while Michael Eric Dyson has been doing a good job keeping the Ed Show alive on MSNBC without Ed, its clear that enthusiasm has waned with Ed’s disappearance. It will be interesting to see how the next week plays out …

I wish Ed a speedy TV return in early April — of this year 🙂

 

Obama Twitter mentions, August-February ….

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There’s no real insightful analysis to this, I just thought it was interesting and worth sharing:

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Click to Enlarge

Some caveats: (1) during election night and a couple of the debates, Twitter’s API couldn’t keep up with the volume of tweets, and so my counts are too low.  (2) How you define your search affects the counts.  My search is somewhat narrow, and so that also will undercount tweets about the President.

During the inauguration, Obama got over a million mentions on Twitter.  That’s an amazing number of people who took the time to write their thoughts (positive or negative) about the event and the man.  Unless they were all about Michelle, of course…

The amazing #UniteBlue storms Twitter: Week end review 3/2/13

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The hashtag #uniteblue and its associated web site, http://uniteblue.com, has galvanized a lot of liberal discussion on Twitter.  It’s an incredibly clever way to not only coordinate messaging but a way to increase the clout (and, of course, Klout) of liberal Twitter users.  If you haven’t looked into it yet, do so right now.  I’ll wait.  There’s so much more to it than what I’ve just described.

OK, back?

So what kind of impact has Unite Blue had on Twitter? In the last week, the volume of messages tagged with #UniteBlue is pretty amazing:

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Click to Enlarge

What’s especially amazing is the consistently high number of “new” tweets — that is, updates that are neither retweets or replies but are original compositions.  That level of creative activity is very high for Twitter.

Some people are very active on the hashtag. The top 10 users of the tag are:

Total Tweets User
690 AlAlekhine
682 ArthurA_P
652 UniteBlue
496 tsj_washington
417 AdamLowisz
389 TheWrightWingv2
371 VTwinCrucible
367 NativeSonKY
363 Rebecca810
350 BreitTwit1

Clearly there’s a dedicated group of people using the tag.

But even so, the number of duplicative tweets (usually, but not always, retweets) is comparably small: 

Number of Times Sent Text
208 RT @TheNewDeal: “If we’re going to end welfare, the rich should be the first to lose it.” – Mac Morgan #CorporateWelfare #UniteBlue #p2 #tcot
163 RT @TheNewDeal: Dear America, You Elected Barack Obama as President TWICE. The #Sequester is the GOP Punishing You for That. #UniteBlue #p2 #tcot
94 RT @UnitedLiberals: The Annual deficit since #Obama has shrunk from 1.3 trillion to 845 billion RT THIS AND SPREAD THE WORD #uniteblue
94 RT @140elect: Why I founded #UniteBlue, and a response to smear attacks against it. http://t.co/2YLGddb5yb
76 RT @Ziggy_Daddy: #JobsNotCuts, because the role of government is to help the lives of its citizens, not hurt them. #UniteBlue
74 RT @oopsieee: Keep the immigrants. Deport the Republicans. http://t.co/XHD6oudx5A #UniteBlue #ConnectTheLeft
73 RT @TheNewDeal: 2004: US Consulate in Saudi Arabia Attacked. 8 People Killed. GOP Didn’t Say a Word. #Benghazi #UniteBlue #p2 #tcot
69 RT @maddogg2463: If homosexuality can affect your marriage then one of you is Gay. #UniteBlue
66 RT @BradTracy2032: I believe Dwight Eisenhower, war hero and Republican, has something to say on the #Sequester. #uppers #UniteBlue http://t.co/cNer2CD9Im
66 RT @jxjs12: Please proceed Republicans… #UniteBlue  We will remember in 2014 Record Voter Turnout http://t.co/5vjDtEV9Km
64 RT @UniteBlue: #UniteBlue is here to protect everyone on the Left, whether you join or not. Attacked by RWNJs? Let us know. We are here to help.
63 RT @UniteBlue: Why I founded #UniteBlue, and a response to smear attacks against it. http://t.co/c5nfzaxttz via @140elect
61 I want to join @UniteBlue
60 RT @Politics_PR: How to Stop the GOP from Stealing the White House http://t.co/bIXBr7Djva via @waxwings2 #NPV #UniteBlue #tcot
58 RT @UniteBlue: How does that sound as a goal #UniteBlue? Are you in?! RT @UniteBlue: Our Mission For 2014: Turn Red States Blue.
56 RT @betseyross: Ted Cruz is one of few in DC actually doing his job. Must be why @ABC @NBC @CBS @CNN hate him so much #uniteblue #tcot #TGDN #ncpol
51 RT @TheNewDeal: 2008: US Embassy in Yemen Attacked. 10 People Killed. GOP Didn’t Say a Word. #Benghazi #UniteBlue #p2 #tcot
50 RT @TheNewDeal: Not All Republicans are Racist, but All Racists Seem to be Republicans. #JustSayin #UniteBlue #VotingRightsAct #p2
46 RT @TheNewDeal: 2002: US Consulate in Pakistan Attacked. 10 People Killed. GOP Didn’t Say a Word. #Benghazi #UniteBlue #p2 #tcot
46 RT @SayethSimon: “I know someone shot your child, but protecting guns is more important.” #ThingsYouWillNeverHearObamaSay #UniteBlue

It will be interesting to see how far the group can go and how high its volume of tweets will grow.  So far, it’s been amazing.  I haven’t seen any other interest group organize this well on Twitter…