Rather than update the post below I thought I would start a new one simply because the focus is somewhat changing…
Two things:
First, about Stillwater. Lots of theories about why this city ranked number one per capita. If it is the result of those college punks then why didn’t Norman, with its 30,000 enrolled students, score higher? A perfect study for some grad student if anyone is interested. While we await the results I will give my $.02.
I think you need to consider some of the great examples of twitter usage at Oklahoma State University. Matt give me some of the credit but there is so much more. There was a class all about social media and Twitter played a large role since we used it to engage in conversation all throughout the semester. But there are other great examples; @Bonnieann and her Library staff used twitter to reach out to those in need of Library services. There were professors who used Twitter to engage their students with weekly trivia discussions or to share industry information, a sorority integrated it into their communications initiatives to communicate with all its members and, of course, the students and student groups found ways to integrate this tool into their awareness and action initiatives – or just to stay in touch about plans for Thursday night. Yes, all this usage supported by a strategy… go figure.
But all the above could take place (and is to some extent) anywhere in Oklahoma and its many college campuses. So what is the real reason?
I don’t think you can find the answer in the data but I think you might know it if you lived in Stillwater and could observe the evolution of twitter usage within the University, witness the process in which people became tweeps and hear them share the value they found in this new communication tool.
Bottom line, people didn’t join twitter because they heard about it and thought it was cool and they didn’t do it for status. They joined twitter through a process of awareness, witnessing firsthand the value of the tool while also being educated about how to use the tool, the benefits it offered, etc. There also was a huge support element of current Twitter users helping new users – something which is critical if you plan to create a community around or with Twitter.
There is one other element which exists in Stillwater and may have had the greatest impact on the usage of Twitter – A strong community already existed. OKState is nationally known for their strong sense of community – I had heard about it but until I attended and now teach, never knew just how strong this was and am constently in amazement and awe of this bond which exists. Because of this strong sense of community was Twitter, for many, a natural evolution in their efforts to stay connected? Again, a perfect study for some grad student if anyone is interested.
My second point, the greatest take away this study offers, will be up later… gotta get back to work.
confession: i thought the same thing. lots of students making up roughly half the population (my random number). here’s a thought…do the tweets in stillwater drop during the summer? do students change the name of their “location” if they move away for the summer? (i guess yes and then no)
if only we could spam each oklahoma twitter user, then force them to take a survey that is not leading that we have created, then compile that information too… endless possabilities.
Oh sure, use more math…
I don’t disagree with the numbers, thanks for sharing all. How do we take into consideration all the college campuses in even small communities? NSU for example? I couldn’t find stats for them though. Thoughts?
So what would you attribute Stillwater’s #1 status to? Just a numbers game?
Or maybe it’s what Bill said.
-Matt
I think the Norman vs. Stillwater issue largely has to do with overall community composition. In short, students and related university folk make up a much smaller component of the Norman community as compared to Stillwater.
Look at total enrollment as % of municipality :
OU/Norman = 26,212/106,707 = 24.6% students
OSU/Stilwater = 20,756/46,976 = 41.5% students
If you look back at the original report Stillwater, Norman and Edmond (home of UCO) all beat Tulsa and Oklahoma City in tweeps per capita. But of the three Stillwater has significantly more college punks per capita. There is a clear trend that suggest that the # of tweeps per capita increases with total pop, but there is a push when there is a college central to the the community. So while Norman has more students than Stillwater, it has disproportionally more non-students… way more.
In fact, even though OU Norman has only 26% more students than OSU Stillwater, Norman boasts 80% more tweeps than Stillwater (Stillwater 813, Norman 1,471). If we separate the data into students and non-students I suspect OU may in fact have more student tweeps per capita than OSU. In other words, I assert that it’s the non-student Norman dwellers that bring the Norman average down.
This same phenomenon is seen in the demographic stats mentioned by Judd Wheeler in response to the original post:
Edmond’s average age is 33.6 and 15-24 year olds make up 16.22% of the population. (1.38% active Twitter users)
Norman’s average age is 29.3 and 15-24 year olds make up 25.23% of the population. (1.38% active Twitter users)
Stillwater’s average age is 24 and 15-24 year olds make up 40.75% of the population. (1.73% active Twitter users)
References:
http://vpaf.okstate.edu/IRIM/StudentProfile/2008/PSBpage01.html
http://www.ou.edu/provost/ir/enrollment-summaries/Fall08EnrSummary.pdf