Oklahoma Tweets

Oklahoma
Tweets
A 9 week study of Oklahomans’ Use of Twitter
March 29, 2009 - May 31, 2009

Data Collection & Analysis
by @mattgalloway
June 18, 2009

Monday, June 22, 2009

Vocabulary (at least as used in this report)

• Tweet - a single Twitter post
• Tweep - an individual who posts tweets
• Hexadactylous - six ﬁngers or toes per hand or
foot respectively

©2009 Matt Galloway

Methodology
• Custom data collection software using Twitter
Search & Twitter APIs
• 11 Radius Searches
• 1,503,018 tweets collected from 21,083 tweeps
from March 29, 2009-May 31,2009
• Of which 1,272,721 tweets are from 18,806 tweeps
self identiﬁed as Oklahomans in their twitter
proﬁle


Radius Searches
Search Name Latitude Longitude Radius
Catoosa, OK 36.1888 -95.7455 80 mi
Clayton, OK 34.5894 -95.3525 85 mi
Guymon, OK 36.6827 -101.4811 80 mi
Woodward, OK 36.4336 -99.39 60 mi
Enid, OK 36.3955 -97.878 50 mi
Hobart, OK 35.0294 -99.0927 70 mi
Norman, OK 35.2225 -97.4391 70 mi
Wilson, OK 34.1619 -97.4255 50 mi
Arkansas City, KS 37.0619 -97.038 30 mi

Stillwater, OK 36.1155 -97.058 40 mi
Lawton, OK 34.6086 -98.39 40 mi


Who’s Missing
Twitter search API does not return Tweets as
being from Oklahoma if the “Location” field in a
tweep’s twitter profile is:
• blank
• only says “oklahoma”
• is silly (like “at my desk”)
• specifies only a city name that is attributed to
another state by Twitter
• is otherwise indeterminate (“The Southwest”)

• Ponca City, Duncan, Del City (see next slide)

Ponca City, Del City
& Duncan: I’m sorry.

The “Radius Search” approach used for this study was intended to collect data from
all municipalities in Oklahoma. Due to discrepancies in Twitter’s interpretation of the
radius, some municipalities on the edge of the search radius were inadvertently
omitted.

The 3 most signiﬁcant examples are Ponca City, Del City and Duncan - none of
which appear in this data for this study. All 3 of these municipalities are among
Oklahoma’s top 25 most populous. The combined Twitter population of these 3
municipalities is likely less than 200.

While the omission of these 3 municipalities shouldn’t have a signiﬁcant effect on the
overall Oklahoma statistics, I’m sorry I missed them. As a result none of these
multiplies appear in the top Twitter towns of Oklahoma list, but probably should.


OK Twitter Census
• During this 8 week study 18,806 unique
Oklahoman tweeps were identiﬁed.
• I estimate that 40%-60% of Oklahoman tweeps
are “missing” due to missing/incorrect Twitter
proﬁle locations.

Oklahoma’s Estimated Twitter Population
is between 31-47K Tweeps


1 in 100 Oklahomans are
active on Twitter.

The other 99 mostly think we’re nuts.


When Does OK Tweet?
17%

13%

9%

4%

0%
Mon Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun

Oklahoma (All) Tulsa OKC Stillwater Norman


%Tweets by Hour
7%

5.25%

3.5% Norman
1.75%
Midnight
6am
Noon 0%
6pm
11pm
7%

5.25%
Stillwater 3.5%

1.75%
Midnight
6am
Noon 0%
6pm
11pm

%Tweets by Hour
7%

5.25%

3.5% Tulsa
1.75%
Midnight
6am
Noon 0%
6pm
11pm
7%

5.25%
Oklahoma City 3.5%

1.75%
Midnight
6am
Noon 0%
6pm
11pm

%Tweets by Hour
7%

5.25%

3.5%

1.75%

Midnight
6am 0%
Noon
6pm

11pm
Tulsa OKC Stillwater Norman


University Shocker!

Oklahoma college punks tweet later in the evening
than their older urban dwelling twitter counterparts
and then, of course, sleep ‘til noon.
I miss college.


Tweet Volume (of 18,806 known Oklahoman Tweeps)

180000

150000

120000

90000

60000

30000
3/29 4/5 4/12 4/19
4/26 0
5/3

5/10
(Total Weekly Tweets for Week Starting) 5/17
5/24
Other OKC Tulsa Norman Edmond Stillwater


Tweet Volume (of 18,806 known Oklahoman Tweeps)

60000

50000

40000

30000

20000
3/29
4/5
4/12 10000
4/19
4/26
5/3 0
5/10
(Total Weekly Tweets for Week Starting) 5/17

5/24

Stillwater Edmond Norman Tulsa Other OKC


Rural Folk Dig Oprah
The hyper growth of Twitter from earlier in the
year seemingly peaked in Oklahoma during the
week of April 26, 2009.
Closer examination shows the “peak” Was
exaggerated by a bump from rural Twitter tire
kickers driven by pop celebrities like Oprah, Ellen
and Ashton.
They came, they went, they uttered a collective “I

just don’t get Twitter.”


Is Twitter Dead Yet?
While the media sucking celebrity hype driven
Twitter explosion is over, Twitter is deﬁnitely not
dead.
It’s too early to tell but I suspect Twitter will return
to a period of slow, steady sustained growth.
At the very least, there’s not yet any evidence of
rapid contraction.


Tweep Retention
18,806 Total Observed Oklahoman Tweeps

de ee 7

re ee 1
tw 4

ne 8
tw ,78
fe ps
3,4

57
in s
ta p
10
ed

4,
tw w
ed

ps
ct

ee
Active* in April Active* in May

14,228 tweeps 15,359 tweeps
* “Active” meaning at least one tweet was posted during the month.


Tweep Retention
• 24% of Oklahomans who tweeted at least once in
April did not tweet in May. #defectors
April also tweeted at least once in May. #retention
May did not tweet in April. #newtweeps
• Overall, the number of Oklahomans posting at
least one tweet in May was 8% higher than the

number posting in April. #growth


Weekly Twitter Pop
12000

9000

6000

3/29 3000
4/5
4/12
4/19
4/26
5/3 0
5/10
5/17

(Total Weekly Tweeps for Week Starting) 5/24

Other OKC Tulsa Norman Edmond Stillwater


Top Ok Twitter Towns
Twitter Twitter Real 2007 Real 2007 % of Real Pop
Pop Rank City Pop* Population Population Rank Active on Twitter*
1 Oklahoma City 5,703 547,274 1 1.04%
2 Tulsa 4,607 384,037 2 1.20%
3 Norman 1,471 106,707 3 1.38%
4 Edmond 1,079 78,226 6 1.38%
5 Stillwater 813 46,976 10 1.73%
6 Broken Arrow 468 90,714 5 0.52%
7 Lawton 346 91,568 4 0.38%
8 Owasso 213 26,352 14 0.81%
9 Shawnee 191 30,256 13 0.63%
10 Bartlesville 189 35,415 12 0.53%
11 Yukon 185 22,498 18 0.82%
12 Enid 163 47,008 9 0.35%
13 Tahlequah 137 16,419 30 0.83%
14 Midwest City 133 55,935 7 0.24%
15 Claremore 127 17,312 26 0.73%
16 Muskogee 121 40,015 11 0.30%
17 Mustang 84 17,190 27 0.49%
18 Sand Springs 76 18,450 24 0.41%
19 Ardmore 69 24,625 15 0.28%
20 Weatherford 67 10,097 41 0.66%

21 Bethany 66 19,607 22 0.34%
22 Altus 63 19,329 23 0.33%
23 Sapulpa 62 20,908 20 0.30%
24 McAlester 61 18,232 25 0.33%
25 Moore 60 51,106 8 0.12%

* Twitter Population & % of Real Population Active on Twitter numbers are based on observed Twitter users. The real values are likely about double.

Population Double
Whammy

Generally speaking, the larger the population of a
municipality, the higher the penetration of Twitter.
For Oklahoma’s twin giants Tulsa & Oklahoma
City, this means exaggerating the obvious gap
between their Twitter populations and that of the
rest of the state.


Youth Density
...but population is not the whole story. A high
density of young punks can also inﬂate a
municipality’s Twitter penetration.
Not surprisingly, college towns have
disproportionately high densities of Twitter users.
Stillwater, Norman, Tahlequah, Weatherford, and
Claremore all have high penetration of Twitter
users.


Stillwater is
Twitteractive
Stillwater is the most Twitter active city in
Oklahoma.
It’s high density of youth propels Stillwater past
larger cities in Twitter use. Approximately 3 in 100
in Stillwater are active on Twitter - three times the
state average.
I think this is mostly the inﬂuence of that

@billhandy.


Questions & Comment
• Please use this report in whatever way you’d like.
While I’d appreciate it if you’d attribute my work to
me where appropriate we both know that nothing
(but bad karma) awaits if you don’t. Meh.
• If you have questions or comments please DM or
reply to @mattgalloway on Twitter. You can also
email me at matt@thebasement.com or give me
a call or txt at 918-808-3072.
• I’d really love it if you post about it on your blog. Be

sure to send me an email if you do and I’ll come and
comment.

Special Thanks To
@billhandy @abbyannette
@hetty4 @FishDogs
@tashdoestulsa @SpikeJones
@WillReinier @henry5
@juddwheeler @RandyCowling
@NNascenzi @CarlyRush
@andreamyers @GeraldBuckley
@Scyranth
These folks inspire me.


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