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Patterns of implicit and non-follower retweet propagation: investigating the role of applications and hashtags

Patterns of implicit and non-follower retweet propagation: investigating the role of applications and hashtags
Patterns of implicit and non-follower retweet propagation: investigating the role of applications and hashtags
Existing literature on retweets seems to focus mainly on retweets created using explicit, formal retweeting mechanisms, such as Twitter's own native retweet function, and the prefixing of the terms 'RT' or 'via' in front of copied tweets. However, retweets can also be made using implicit, informal mechanisms. These include tweet replies and other mechanisms, which use neither the native nor RT/via mechanisms, but their content and timelines suggest the likelihood of being a retweet. Moreover, retweets can also occur with or without a defined follower/following network path between a tweet originator and a retweeter. This paper presents an initial taxonomy of propagation based on seven different ways a tweet may spread: native, native non-follower, RT/Via, RT/Via non-follower, replies, non-follower replies and other implicit 'retweets'. An experiment has examined this new model, by investigating where tweets containing URLs from the domains of online petitions, charity fundraisers, news portals, and YouTube videos can be classified into the seven different categories. When including other implicit 'retweets', more than 50% of all the retweets found across all four domains were classified as implicit retweets, while more than 79% of all retweets were made by non-followers. More work needs to be done on the composition of other implicit 'retweets'. Initial investigations found hashtags in 99-100% of these tweets, suggesting that retweeting using conventional mechanisms may not be the main method that URLs get propagated across microblogs.
Azman, Norhidayah
c4278d9d-e0e7-491c-a263-22064bee16ab
Millard, David
4f19bca5-80dc-4533-a101-89a5a0e3b372
Weal, Mark
e8fd30a6-c060-41c5-b388-ca52c81032a4
Azman, Norhidayah
c4278d9d-e0e7-491c-a263-22064bee16ab
Millard, David
4f19bca5-80dc-4533-a101-89a5a0e3b372
Weal, Mark
e8fd30a6-c060-41c5-b388-ca52c81032a4

Azman, Norhidayah, Millard, David and Weal, Mark (2011) Patterns of implicit and non-follower retweet propagation: investigating the role of applications and hashtags. ACM Web Science Conference 2011, , Koblenz, Germany. 14 - 17 Jun 2011.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)

Abstract

Existing literature on retweets seems to focus mainly on retweets created using explicit, formal retweeting mechanisms, such as Twitter's own native retweet function, and the prefixing of the terms 'RT' or 'via' in front of copied tweets. However, retweets can also be made using implicit, informal mechanisms. These include tweet replies and other mechanisms, which use neither the native nor RT/via mechanisms, but their content and timelines suggest the likelihood of being a retweet. Moreover, retweets can also occur with or without a defined follower/following network path between a tweet originator and a retweeter. This paper presents an initial taxonomy of propagation based on seven different ways a tweet may spread: native, native non-follower, RT/Via, RT/Via non-follower, replies, non-follower replies and other implicit 'retweets'. An experiment has examined this new model, by investigating where tweets containing URLs from the domains of online petitions, charity fundraisers, news portals, and YouTube videos can be classified into the seven different categories. When including other implicit 'retweets', more than 50% of all the retweets found across all four domains were classified as implicit retweets, while more than 79% of all retweets were made by non-followers. More work needs to be done on the composition of other implicit 'retweets'. Initial investigations found hashtags in 99-100% of these tweets, suggesting that retweeting using conventional mechanisms may not be the main method that URLs get propagated across microblogs.

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More information

Published date: 2011
Additional Information: Event Dates: 14th to 18th June,2011
Venue - Dates: ACM Web Science Conference 2011, , Koblenz, Germany, 2011-06-14 - 2011-06-17
Organisations: Web & Internet Science

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 272907
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/272907
PURE UUID: 883f8540-5aa0-466c-b278-30b4ea9689b8
ORCID for David Millard: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7512-2710
ORCID for Mark Weal: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6251-8786

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 03 Oct 2011 13:45
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:59

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Contributors

Author: Norhidayah Azman
Author: David Millard ORCID iD
Author: Mark Weal ORCID iD

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