My Facebook experiment
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 02:17PM So, I just finished a little experiment. No worries, no animals were harmed during my testing, but my eyes did start to bug out a bit by the end.
A few weeks back, after observing the updates and postings on my Facebook account over the course of a few days, I got to wondering exactly how many of my "friends" were actually active Facebook posters. The number of posts seemed prolific. Still, I had this feeling I was reading the work of a very active minority, all with very understanding... or oblivious bosses. It seemed like every day, the posts came from the exact same people. Over, and over, and over again.
So, thinking back to 7th grade science class and the scientific method, my hypothesis was this:
While a large and growing number of people sign up for Facebook, and while 518 of those people are a part of my Facebook "friends" network (at the beginning of my experiment), a solid majority of people do not actively post updates, photos and news stories or participate in quizzes about their favorite "Happy Days" characters.
With that as my hunch, I set off to collect my data and prove my point. I wanted to know how many of my "friends" actively posted items and how frequently they did it. I also wanted to get a sense, from a business of advocacy perspective, exactly how big an audience you can reach through your Facebook network.
Starting at 6 a.m. on Monday, July 13 and ending at midnight on Sunday, July 19 (basically, six hours short of an exact week) I recorded the name of each "friend" who posted something on Facebook (at least those close buddies who had not blocked my ability to see their posts). Then, skimming through the Newsfeed a few times a day, I jotted down each time a person posted an item.
The process was hard only on my eyes, and the results surprised me.
Of my 518 Facebook "friends," 320 posted at least one update during the week. That's 62 percent, or quite a bit more than a small, vocal and active minority. And, that doesn't include anyone who looked at Facebook, read the updates, but didn't post anything. It also doesn't include any of the people spending a beautiful week in July on the beach.
I remember loving the unit in 7th grade science on the scientific method. There was no pressure. Come up with a hypothosis, do your experiment and then prove your guess either right, or wrong. It didn't matter if your original guess was correct, only that you followed the method to test it.
In this case, my hunch was wrong, but people appear to find Facebook very right.
More fun with Facebook numbers and my experiment later. Until then, a question for you. Take a guess: with 320 people posting during the week, what was the grand total number of posts?
Post a guess in the comments below.
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Reader Comments (2)
1000 posts
Based on the comment you made to me at a meeting several months ago, you have me wondering just how many posts I submitted last week!?!?LOL As for guessing the total number of posts from those 320 people...I would say around 2100.