For Twitter, Power Users Still Rule

There’s no surprise in saying that we’re big fans of Twitter around here.  The Geek Effect uses Twitter to promote our articles and on an individual basis we share items of note and communicate.  In no uncertain terms Twitter redefined how we communicate.

That being said, tech people can be a little territorial at times.  We like to lead innovation and when the mainstream, non-geek types come onto our term we get our collective back up a little.  Such was the case with Twitter.  We were happy in our Twitter community and then people like Oprah and Ashton Kutcher showed up.  Our peaceful village was invaded!

Okay, perhaps I’m exaggerating the reality of it all, but when “Follow us on Twitter” started showing up nearly everywhere it seemed our exclusivity to Twitter was all but gone.  Well, it seems the invasion by the mainstream has failed.  Geeks like us still rule the land of Twitter

Mashable (via MediaMemo) is reporting on a recent study by Barracuda Labs which drew out some detail about the “average” Twitter user:

“An active or “True” Twitter user has at least 10 followers, follows at least 10 people and had tweeted at least 10 times. By that definition though, only 21% of Twitter users are active users.”

That’s right, only 21% of Twitter users are active.  That means a solid 79% of users are either bots, dormant accounts, or “social media specialists” (aka spammers).  Mashable went on to state, “That means nearly all of the tweets on the social network were coming from about one-fourth of the user base.”

The report goes into some detail about the growth, or lack there of depending on how you look at it, of Twitter.  However, I didn’t want to focus on that so much as the fact geeks still rule the Twitterverse! Suck it, Oprah.

* Note: I know the banner image has nothing to do with Twitter, but The Big Bang Theory is on tonight and I needed a representation of geeks.  It fit the bill.