185 what?
A few months back I looked at some hard data on my Twitter usage. Actually, it was more usage across the board between Social Networks like Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, Buzz and others. I did a rudimentary count of how many Twitter posts I looked at in a day. I tallied the numbers for a week, then averaged it out. That is how I got to 185.
I also took into affect how many Twitter followers I had. At the time it was 1170. I counted only the Twitter posts I saw in the “All friends” area – Mentions and DM’s did not count.
The same idea was applied on Facebook. It was a lot higher in 350. I think that is because my Facebook is geared more toward the people directly in my life and Twitter is pretty much everyone I follow.
I did the Buzz thing for a while, but lost interest. Plurk – Haven’t been up there in a while. Friendfeed? Well, that is almost the same as Facebook, right?
The reason why I counted? Well at that time, everyone was talking about paid Twitter posts. Anyone with around 5,000 followers or more were getting requests to pay-post. In thinking about it, I wondered if someone does post an ad, how likely would it be that I would read it?
I suppose if you were to post the ad every hour, then I would eventually catch it once. But in all reality, with reading 185 posts a day from 1170 people (which is more like 300-400 people), that post might never be seen by my eyes. But if you have 5,000 people following you and this 185 model was applied, I suppose someone will see it. More likely about 30-50 people will read your post. A small, but useful number.
Of course, I went by my own habits. I have an iPhone, so I can check these things while I am mobile. And as they say – Individual results will vary.
I challenge you to figure out how many Twitter posts you read in a day. Is it more? To do this – Do a daily count of posts you read for a week and average it out. I would do separate counts of each social network you visit.
As for me, I am working on the 185. I will most likely do another count / average in about 6 months. See if my numbers increase.