Tweeting vs. Liking
Anton Strezhnev tries to explain why some posts get more “Likes” and others get more “Tweets” (via Monkey Cage):
Posts that have graphics or are funny are more “likable” while wonkier posts are more “tweetable.” I would add that the first relationship is a bit stronger than the second since its difficult to find a good measure of “wonkiness” (especially since almost all posts on the Monkey Cage are relatively wonky). That the more “tech” categories (Data and IT/Politics) had a positive effect on the Tweet Rating might lend support to Edwin Chen’s argument that the Twitter ecosystem is geared specifically towards technology nerds.
I’m not sure that the results say much about the composition of Facebook vs. Twitter – a lot of people use both. I do, however, think that they may hint at a key difference in the content-sharing incentives behind both services. Facebook is much more graphically-oriented than Twitter.
This accords with my (wholly without empirical substantiation) sense of the relationship between tweets and likes here at LGM; whimsical posts seem to get more of the latter, wonky posts more of the former. It also seems sensible in context of my own social networking behavior, as I view my twitter feed as a much more professional venue than my Facebook page. I know many of my Facebook friends from spaces wholly unrelated to my professional persona, while I expect that most of those who follow me on twitter do so because of my professional/academic/blogospheric work.