Twitter assumptions are mistaken, according to Duncan Watts, Yahoo! Research Scientist

Mike Grehan, VP, global content director, with Incisive Media, interviews SES New York 2011 keynoter, Duncan Watts, Yahoo! Research Scientist. Mike raises the point that the original assumption was if you wanted to accomplish anything using Twitter, you need to identify the biggest influencer, the one with the most followers, but that is not necessarily true, according to Duncan. Under certain conditions, you want to connect with an influencer, such as Kim Kardashian, and that's when it is time consuming and expensive to find people and recruit them. Under other circumstances, it is much more cost-effective to recruit a very large number of relatively ordinary influencers. The key for marketers is to do the hard work of determining which type of influencer will more effectively get your message across. It's about quantifying the things you care about, according to Duncan, and conducting experiments. Celebrities tend not to retweet anyone else. Duncan also discusses his new book; Everything is Obvious (once you know the answer.) People find it difficult to predicting human behavior.

To learn more about speaking at SES New York, please visit:
http://www.sesnewyork.com

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Technology
• behavior
• obvious
• everything
• socialmedia
• twitter
• Duncan watts
• influencers
• kim Kardashian
• research
• scientist
• marketers
• ses
• new york
• 2011
• retweet
• Yahoo!
• assumptions

[BenNCM]

Is it really that difficult for anyone to figure out why people want a slice of Kim Kardashian?

I get the impression that half of these nerds to just make things more complex than they should be as a way of ensuring they can keep a roof over their heads.