Until recently, I primarily used Hootsuite to monitor activity on my Twitter account. However, I discovered that I am missing a whole lot of meaningful activity by using a third party app, including some retweets, and peeps who favorite my posts. So, I started monitoring the “Interaction” tab on the Twitter web app, and noticed something interesting: The Favorites feature is used for a variety of different posts, namely, Follow Friday endorsements, quotes, and plain old title-plus-link posts.
I was curious to find out what motivates people to use the Favorites feature (for me it is bookmarking), so I asked my Facebook community. You can see my question and the results of the poll in the image below:
This mini poll (81 votes) suggests that there are 5 ways in which the Twitter Favorite button is being used:
- Bookmarking (which seems to be the most popular use)
- Highlighting Testimonials
- “liking” a post, just like you do on Facebook
- As a way to get noticed (as one friend mentioned in a comment, not shown in the image)
- To increase Klout Score
At face value, it may seem advantageous for a tool to offer a feature that can be used for multiple tasks. However, I would argue that when it comes to a social network, a feature that can have multiple meanings signals a short coming of the design. I say that because social networking tools are created to build community, and strong communities are reinforced by unity of purpose, and clarity of the language used for communication between community members.
This is where the genius of the Facebook “like” button shines through, because, unlike Twitter’s Favorites feature, it is understood universally to mean the same thing: approval.
Does the multiple meaning of the Favorites feature take away from the value Twitter brings to social networking? Of course not, Twitter has a strong position due to it being one of the original micro-blogging sites ever developed; however, the public may not be so forgiving of flaws in the design of up and coming social networking tools.
What is your motivation for using the Favorite feature on Twitter? Cast your vote below:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in the poll, your contribution means so much:
Susan Critelli, Solvita Bennett, Mary Pougnet, ennifer Goodman-Hardy, Joanne Greco-Akerman, Dorien Morin-van Dam, Carolyn Hughes, Rafael Peterson, Janet Callaway, Jay Wszolek, Ray Hiltz, Klaudia Jurewicz, Cees Grootes, Christy Kiltz, Genevieve Lachance, Joel Carter, Phil Gerbyshak, Deone Higgs, Gordon Diver, Itsumiruikjhrs Artist, Joe Cheray, Lorrie Schoettler, Lori Munzer Forth, Kittie Walker, AssistSocialMedia.com, Amy Marin Carlson, Gretchen Svonavec Pritts, Anita Fiander, Linda Jenkins, Carele Belanger, Barbara Joyce Peters, Lisa Frederiksen, Terressa Cortez, Mandy Wooley Edwards, Olga Hermans, Alexandra S. McAllister, Catherine Doucette, Elizabeth L Maness, Vanessa Lewis, Meryl Hershey Beck, Cees Grootes, Ruud Reijmerink, Deone Higgs, Dyane Bradley, Lori Munzer Forth, Kellie Mayday, Jamie Gall, Dawn Collea Stark, Fang Feng, Kelly Kim, Keri Francek Jaehnig, Next Gen Counseling and Coaching, Karen Murphy Presecan, Becky Robinson, Martha Giffen, Debra Simpson, Christy Kiltz, Andi Van Gogh, Helena Ritchie, Allison Carlysle, Billy Stewart, Jon Tennant, Stephen Frost, Karla Campos, Rosemary Cole, SallyKWitt, Arthur Partridge
About Sherry
This is really cool Sheila! I’d love to see what happens with a larger data set, if the trends shift at all or remain similar. Really interesting to think about the multiple-functionality of it. Do you think it’s worth conducting a similar analysis for retweeting, an perhaps the different modes of retweeting..?
Hm… Interesting suggestions. I would think Retweeting would signal “This is so good I want to share it”, or it could be used as a way of getting noticed (mind you, everything is about getting attention, isn’t it?). I think if I had a larger data set, it would probably skew towards bookmarking.
Hi Sherry,
Great article that provides great insights into how this feature is being used.
For me, I use it to build social proof. I favorite all the ‘thank you’s’ and other comments people leave me, which then gets feed into a widget titled – “What Are People Saying” on my website/blog that site visitors can read.
Annemarie Cross recently posted..Niching – Aim Small to Grow Big
That’s a very smart way to use it Annemarie!