News from the schools, June 2009 A selection of news from around
the business campuses A rare tweet It may be beloved by media
and the technorati. It may even be helping to drive democratic
change in the world (see article). But a recent study from
Harvard Business School has wondered aloud about a question
quietly troubling many: exactly what is the point of Twitter?
Although the world may appear enamoured with the micro social-
networking site, where people can keep their “followers”
informed of their every move in 140 characters or fewer, the
truth, it seems, is very different. The study conducted by Bill
Heil, a Harvard student, found that Twitter's usage patterns are
different from other online social networks. “A typical Twitter
user contributes very rarely,” says the report. “Among Twitter
users, the median number of lifetime tweets per user is one.
This translates into over half of Twitter users tweeting less
than once every 74 days.” The study, which examined the activity
of over 300,000 people who ha