TY - JOUR
T1 - Unlocking the power of Twitter communities for startups
AU - Peixoto, Ana Rita
AU - Almeida, Ana de
AU - António, Nuno
AU - Batista, Fernando
AU - Ribeiro, Ricardo
AU - Cardoso, Elsa
N1 - info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDB%2F04466%2F2020/PT#
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDB%2F04152%2F2020/PT#
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDB%2F50021%2F2020/PT#
Peixoto, A. R., Almeida, A. D., António, N., Batista, F., Ribeiro, R., & Cardoso, E. (2023). Unlocking the power of Twitter communities for startups. Applied Network Science, 8, 1-21. [66]. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3062630/v1, https://doi.org/10.1007/s41109-023-00593-0 --- This work was partially supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT) namely by UIDB/04466/2020 and UIDP/04466/2020 (ISTAR_Iscte); UIDB/04152/2020 (MagIC/NOVA IMS); UIDB/50021/2020 (INESC-ID); and UIDB/03126/2020 (CIES_Iscte).
PY - 2023/12/1
Y1 - 2023/12/1
N2 - Social media platforms offer cost-effective digital marketing opportunities to monitor the market, create user communities, and spread positive opinions. They allow companies with fewer budgets, like startups, to achieve their goals and grow. In fact, studies found that startups with active engagement on those platforms have a higher chance of succeeding and receiving funding from venture capitalists. Our study explores how startups utilize social media platforms to foster social communities. We also aim to characterize the individuals within these communities. The findings from this study underscore the importance of social media for startups. We used network analysis and visualization techniques to investigate the communities of Portuguese IT startups through their Twitter data. For that, a social digraph has been created, and its visualization shows that each startup created a community with a degree of intersecting followers and following users. We characterized those users using user node-level measures. The results indicate that users who are followed by or follow Portuguese IT startups are of these types: “Person”, “Company,” “Blog,” “Venture Capital/Investor,” “IT Event,” “Incubators/Accelerators,” “Startup,” and “University.” Furthermore, startups follow users who post high volumes of tweets and have high popularity levels, while those who follow them have low activity and are unpopular. The attained results reveal the power of Twitter communities and offer essential insights for startups to consider when building their social media strategies. Lastly, this study proposes a methodological process for social media community analysis on platforms like Twitter.
AB - Social media platforms offer cost-effective digital marketing opportunities to monitor the market, create user communities, and spread positive opinions. They allow companies with fewer budgets, like startups, to achieve their goals and grow. In fact, studies found that startups with active engagement on those platforms have a higher chance of succeeding and receiving funding from venture capitalists. Our study explores how startups utilize social media platforms to foster social communities. We also aim to characterize the individuals within these communities. The findings from this study underscore the importance of social media for startups. We used network analysis and visualization techniques to investigate the communities of Portuguese IT startups through their Twitter data. For that, a social digraph has been created, and its visualization shows that each startup created a community with a degree of intersecting followers and following users. We characterized those users using user node-level measures. The results indicate that users who are followed by or follow Portuguese IT startups are of these types: “Person”, “Company,” “Blog,” “Venture Capital/Investor,” “IT Event,” “Incubators/Accelerators,” “Startup,” and “University.” Furthermore, startups follow users who post high volumes of tweets and have high popularity levels, while those who follow them have low activity and are unpopular. The attained results reveal the power of Twitter communities and offer essential insights for startups to consider when building their social media strategies. Lastly, this study proposes a methodological process for social media community analysis on platforms like Twitter.
KW - Twitter Data
KW - Communities
KW - Social Media
KW - Startups
UR - https://github.com/arhpo-iscteiulpt/TwitterSocialDigraph.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85171874691&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:001068545700001
U2 - 10.1007/s41109-023-00593-0
DO - 10.1007/s41109-023-00593-0
M3 - Article
SN - 2364-8228
VL - 8
SP - 1
EP - 21
JO - Applied Network Science
JF - Applied Network Science
IS - 1
M1 - 66
ER -