What are they tweeting and why? : corporate Twitter use in Australia and the USA

Abstract

This study compares and contrasts use of Twitter, the most common micro-blogging medium, by six Twitter accounts linked to three Australian and three US organisations. Quantitative and content analyses were performed on a sample of 1,194 tweets posted over a period from 6 December 2009 to 27 May 2010. The results show that while two-way communications were the most common form of tweets by all accounts, there was evidence of very different Twitter practices between the organisations, and some evidence of different practices within the organisations. The results provide a framework for organisations and researchers to compare Twitter practices, in order to identify the best Twitter strategy for different organisations