The Technium: The Ciphers of Social Media Kevin Kelly and his researcher Camille Cloutier looked through KK’s social media followers to see how many may be ciphers, or unused accounts in various forms. This has been verified by PeakAnalytics, which observes that the more followers you have the higher percentage will be ciphers. Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich claims to have 1.3 million followers. But last August a group at Indiana University did an analysis of some of the 2012 Presidential candidates and found that 76% of Gingrich’s 1.3 million Twitter accounts lacked a profile biography. That doesn’t prove they are all fake, or bots, but it does say they are ciphers. … The main lesson of the Social Ciphers is to beware of large numbers in social media. The larger the number, the more fluffy it is. Real or not, these folks are just not there. Via colleague @lheron. I like the term fluffy used here.

The Technium: The Ciphers of Social Media

Kevin Kelly and his researcher Camille Cloutier looked through KK’s social media followers to see how many may be ciphers, or unused accounts in various forms.

This has been verified by PeakAnalytics, which observes that the more followers you have the higher percentage will be ciphers. Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich claims to have 1.3 million followers. But last August a group at Indiana University did an analysis of some of the 2012 Presidential candidates and found that 76% of Gingrich’s 1.3 million Twitter accounts lacked a profile biography. That doesn’t prove they are all fake, or bots, but it does say they are ciphers.

…

The main lesson of the Social Ciphers is to beware of large numbers in social media. The larger the number, the more fluffy it is. Real or not, these folks are just not there.

Via colleague @lheron. I like the term fluffy used here.

Notes

  1. journo-geekery posted this