Early tech-clique advantage on Twitter eroded once mainstream celebrities arrived
Evidence
Veronica Belmont summed it up: … Twitter was very much in the Valley and very much in San Francisco in its early days. So of course, you know, people like me and people like Kevin Rose and Leo [Laporte], who were covering it on their shows and podcasts very early[,] got a lot of followers very quickly, and now that it’s gaining more mainstream success, and the general public are becoming more aware of it, and the people in the limelight in the general public are starting to get more followers as well. And it’s interesting to see how the tech clique is now suddenly mashing up against the mainstream media, the mainstream actors and politicians who are picking up on Twitter and realizing its potential, it’s definitely “times they are a changing.” — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 208
Categorization
- XREF: Direct evidence for how early-adopter status advantages get superseded when mainstream attention redistributes metrics — central to platform status dynamics. — connects to: Early Twitter allowed ordinary users direct access to celebrities. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 410; Twitter’s early user base was a small San Francisco tech clique — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 207; Offline fame and celebrity, not content quality, drive most follower growth — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 261 (+1 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 208
Broader Connections
- Twitter’s early user base was a small San Francisco tech clique
#corroborates(0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 207 - Offline fame and celebrity, not content quality, drive most follower growth
#corroborates(0.78) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 261 - Early Twitter allowed ordinary users direct access to celebrities.
#qualifies(0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 410