Twitter is more sensitive to news buzz than Facebook – Swine flu case study

May 6th, 2009 by Dr. Taly Weiss

Filed under blog citation, bloggers, buzz word, case study, cybers, facebook, google, Google Trends, information, internet behavior, Nielsen BlogPulse, research 2.0, search volume, social media, Trend Spotting Behavior, Trend Spotting Tools, Trend Targets & Groups, Trends Review, twitter, where's the buzz

During the last week of April – the global buzz around the swine flu was vastly spreading, as reflected in online activity measures. Following this buzz here is what we have learned:

1. Swine flu hysteria is decreasing
Web measures show significant indications for this public hysteria to decline
(Google search volume, Blogs citations , Faecbook Lexicon Twitter trends)

2. Comparing the trend acceleration graph of Facebook (2nd graph) to Twitter’s (1st graph) – it is obvious that news spread much faster through Twitter. It took Swine Flu news no more than 3 days to reach a peak in Twitter (peak was registered on April 27), that’s two days earlier than it took Facebook walls to reach their peak.