Table 5 Characteristics and strategies employed by successful and unsuccessful profiles
Broad strategy | Specific strategy | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Top 10 (%) | Bottom 5 (%) | Top 10 (%) | Bottom 5 (%) | ||
Direct engagement with users | Acknowledges/supports followers/friends | 60 | 20 | 90 | 0 |
Host replies directly to user | 100 | 0 | 70 | 0 | |
Links in with established user bases/cross promotion with other organisations | Hash Tags | n/a | n/a | 100 | 20 |
Retweets content from other organisations/individuals | n/a | n/a | 100 | 40 | |
Links to campaigns/events | 80 | 20 | 100 | 60 | |
Host website has link to Twitter/Facebook profile | 80 | 80 | 80 | 40 | |
Encourages interaction/fosters online community amongst users | Polls/quizzes/surveys | 50 | 20 | 50 | 0 |
Poses questions and/or initiates conversation | 100 | 60 | 100 | 20 | |
Allows users to post | 60 | 0 | n/a | n/a | |
Makes content broadly relevant and engaging | Links to relevant content/organisations | 100 | 100 | 100 | 80 |
Uses humour | 20 | 100 | 20 | 0 | |
Posts time-relevant content | 90 | 60 | 100 | 80 | |
Involves expert/trusted source | 30 | 0 | 80 | 20 | |
Makes use of multimedia uploads (video/photos/audio) | 70 | 40 | 90 | 20 | |
Highlights celebrity/ high profile involvement in the issue/cause | 60 | 20 | 80 | 0 | |
Increases following/visibility | Incentives/prizes/competitions | 20 | 40 | 50 | 60 |
Encourages posting, sharing and tagging of photos | 40 | 0 | 20 | 0 | |
Regular activity | Regular tweets/posts (median no. per month (IQR)) | 46 (24, 72) | 6 (3, 7) | 124 (76, 220) | 6 (3, 6) |