Twitter usage data released: How do IT leaders use social media?

IT leaders have a keen sense of professionalism and need to keep up with the ever-changing industry. In order to keep up with the times and do their jobs well, most people use social media to ensure information flow, keep up with the latest information, keep abreast of technological trends, and become future technology talents.

This study uses Leadtail social media insight technology to analyze public data obtained from Twitter. Through aggregation and collation, this data is used to reflect how chief information officers (CIOs) demonstrate their professional capabilities and leadership talents through social media . This study mainly presents the following three dimensions:

1. What are the most important topics? What do they talk about most?
2. What are the sources of information?
3. Which media or individual is the most influential?

First, the Leadtail team identified CIOs and IT leaders who were active on social media based on job titles and company types. They then extracted key points from their key social activities, such as what links did they share? Who did they mention? Whose tweets did they retweet? What were the most popular topics? What platforms were used to share?

The following is some of the research data collected:

1. The survey was conducted among 524 IT leaders in the U.S. and Canada who were active on social media during the study period.
2. The respondents all work in B2B companies or B2C companies.
3. The study sample had a total of 83,314 tweets and 47,936 shared links .
4. The study period was the third and fourth quarters of 2014.

Hot Topic List

Cloud computing, social media, and big data are on the list

What topics attract the most attention of IT leaders? Data proves that cloud computing, social media, big data and mobile are always at the top of the list. The conversations in the IT leader community range from national security to how to attract female IT talents. As you can see from the picture below, the IT field is actually a big tent with many rooms, where you can find many niche topics.

After the topic analysis, there are three major findings:

1. CIOs demonstrate their professional capabilities and leadership talents through interactive participation in social media, and guide discussions related to technology strategy and innovation.
2. Cloud computing, infrastructure, big data, analytics and the Internet of Things are the first topics these technology leaders mention.
3. On social media platforms, CIOs and IT leaders actively interact with other technology leaders, industry analysts, journalists, and market and social media influencers.

So, what does this information mean for you?

Social media provides IT professionals with an excellent opportunity to connect with IT industry leaders, get the latest industry news in real time, and enhance their industry reputation by sharing news of interest.

In the report, you will find that the social activities of media, brands, and individuals influence these technology leaders. Knowing where CIOs and IT leaders go to get information can give you a clear understanding of a social media route map: keep up with industry trends and "network" with industry leaders in the IT field.

The strongest industry influence

@CIOonline, @Vala Afshar

Most retweeted media: @CIOonline

Perhaps more important than the topic of a tweet is where tech executives are coming from. In an age of information overload, who do IT executives trust most for information? Here are the publishers and brands that IT leaders share the most. These may be useful sources for IT professionals to pay attention to.

The top 20 media outlets most forwarded by IT leaders are:

Ranked first is @CIOonline, a media outlet dedicated to providing information services to CIOs, offering the latest technology news, analysis, blogs and videos to IT professionals.

Most retweeted personal account: @ValaAfshar

Of course, social media reputation is not tied to media companies, and individuals can also build highly influential online brands. Whether their tweets are timely, current affairs-focused, fresh and exciting, or data-driven, these individuals retweeted by IT leaders demonstrate their passion for the industry through the quality of the content they create and share.

The following figure shows the 20 people who were forwarded the most by IT leaders:

At number one is @ValaAfshar, CMO of Extreme Networks, who has over 70,000 followers on Twitter.

The most @ed personal account: @ValaAfshar

@ing someone on social media can mean a lot of things: giving someone a thumbs-up; starting a conversation with someone directly about a new idea or a shared piece of information; or raising awareness for someone you recently met.

Being mentioned in any text is a signal: those who are mentioned most are the ones who are at the center of the conversation within the IT industry.

The picture below is a ranking of the 20 people with the most @s, with @ValaAfshar still ranking first.

How IT leaders manage content

3 key points to enhance group influence

The two most popular ways to share to Twitter are through Twitter’s web interface (website, Tweet button, embedded widget), and roughly half of the apps or platforms CIOs and IT leaders use to share to Twitter are mobile.

The figure shows the proportion of IT leaders who use the platform to post at least one tweet. The data shows that mobile platforms account for nearly half of the total.

Besides Twitter, from which social networks do IT leaders share content?

Twitter has long remained the "hub" for cross-cutting content on social networks, especially for sharing content that is easily consumable in desktop and mobile environments, such as videos, photos or slideshows.

If you want to make an impact among IT leaders, here are three tips to help you.

share

The content should include elements that call for sharing, use appropriate markup language, and ensure that the shared content can show how to return to the original website to participate in the interaction.

concise

Use recognizable standard buttons and widgets instead of custom share icons or aggregate share widgets. The difference between the two is the different user experience provided by the Tweet button and the Share button.

Experience

Simply put, your content needs to be easy to read on mobile devices . Whether it’s through responsive design to adapt to all screen resolutions or keeping the screen always on and quickly adapting to various connection speeds, you need to make sure your content is easy to read on tablets and phones.

CIOs must continually evolve to become better leaders and insightful voices for their companies. These professionals understand that business and technology are evolving at a breakneck pace, and they must tap into authoritative sources of information to stay ahead of their peers. As an IT professional, it’s important to know who is influencing which influencers because it helps you learn, share, and advance your career.

This article was originally created by Tencent @全传媒派 (WeChat public account: qq_qmp)