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Greg Smith

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Twitter: My First 6 Years (#1584)

2015/09/01 By Greg

data from TweetStats.com
data from TweetStats.com

I started my social media journey in 2009 by launching this blog, opening a Facebook account, and beginning to tweet.  At that time, I realized I was anything but an early adopter of Facebook (stats show around 300 million active users by the time I joined) or blogging (stats show around 125 million active bloggers started blogging before I did). I was, however, a part of Twitter before it really took off (stats show only about 15 million active accounts at the time I joined).

First Three Years

In September of 2012, I reflected on my first three years of tweeting.  At that time I noted several of my statistics, including:

  • 5,000 tweets
  • 93/100 or an A grade according to Tweet Grader (a service that no longer exists)
  • relatively steady growth in the number of people I followed and the number who followed me (growing from 0 to 800-900)

Last Three Years

My second three years include statistics that are surprisingly similar, including:

  • 5,100 tweets
  • relatively steady growth in the number of people I followed and the number who followed me (growing from 800-900 to 1450-1550)

Current Statistics

According to Twitter Analytics, my 1534 followers are

  • gender: 71% male, 29% female
  • income: 58% have a household income of $75K or higher,  42% have a household income under $75K
  • top professions: 37% professional/technical,  24% health services, and 22% self-employed
  • geography: 90% in USA and of those in USA 10% in Texas, 8% in California, and 6% in Florida

Notable Experiences

The best overall outcome has been developing relationships and learning, which happened as the result of many every day experiences that on their own do not seem noteworthy at the time.  Experiences that stand out as notable include:

  • winning an award at a professional conference for my tweeting
  • leading Twitter workshops for leaders of churches and other non-profit organizations
  • training professors to use Twitter in their courses and including Twitter feeds of course hashtags in two courses I taught at the undergraduate level
  • participating in numerous tweet chats on topics of interest
  • being followed by Jesus Christ

So What?

After initially attempting to use Facebook and Twitter for the same purposes, I realized that didn’t work well for me.  Twitter became the place I go when I am interesting in discussing current events, all things theological, or anything tech.  My personal Facebook presence transitioned to a place for sharing life updates.

Currently, I view Twitter as

an always available opportunity to connect with others, my primary resource for breaking news and real-time updates on events of interest, and a helpful part of my creative process.

What about you?

  • How do you use Twitter?
  • Share your Twitter username.

Be sure to follow me: @SoWhatFaith.

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Greg Smith

Greg is a follower of the Way of Jesus who strives to make the world a better place for all people. Currently, he serves as Chief Executive Officer of White Rock Center of Hope and as Interim Senior Pastor of Advent Lutheran Church. He has served ten congregations, taught religion to undergraduates for eight years, and helped three organizations provide quality healthcare to underserved populations. (Read More)

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