Going Viral: 'How a Link Spreads Through the Twitterverse'

[FoxNews: Helen Thomas Retires]

Excerpt:

Using a combination of the Twitter API, the TweetMeme API and the Processing visualization library, I was able to graph the spread of a handful of popular links. In the TweetMaps below the circles represent each user who ReTweeted the link, they're bigger or smaller based on the number of followers they have. People who are following accounts that Tweeted the link before they did have lines drawn to the accounts they're following (and could have "caught" the link from). The graphs show the first wave of Tweets of each link (generally the first few hours). When you see a number of circles extending horizontally across the graph that means that those accounts all Tweeted the link very close together in time.

CLICK THE 'TWEETMAP' ABOVE OR BELOW TO SEE WHAT ALL THIS MEANS, AND/OR TO DOWNLOAD A FREE MARKETING MANUAL FROM THE CREATOR OF THIS STUDY.


[Alternet: 19-Year-Old American Killed in Flotilla Attack]