ClickZ Is Not as Fun as Katy Perry

A company that turns language into data files, Relative Insight, analyzed ClickZ's Twitter feed and then compared it to that of the platform's most-followed person: Katy Perry.

One thing Relative Insight, a British company that specializes in turning language into data, does is analyze a brand’s Twitter feed and determine the demographics it appears to fall into. A look at @ClickZ found that we are most likely a male between the ages of 60 and 64 and definitely not as cool as Katy Perry…damn!

Despite a predominantly female team, ClickZ‘s Twitter is overwhelmingly masculine, with a gender breakdown of 79 percent male and 21 percent female. This is standard, as every news outlet Relative Insight analyzed had a similar gender profile. Our age is a bit higher than average, but still fairly consistent with news-based accounts, which almost never have resonance younger than 40.

“It’s just the nature of the language used in headlines. It’s completely different from how young people talk, especially on Twitter,” says Rich Wilson, chief marketing officer (CMO) at Relative Insight.

relative-insight-age-resonance

Relative Insight also does side-by-side comparisons, and who better to use for this exercise than Katy Perry, who, with 64 million, has more Twitter followers than anyone in the world?

ClickZ tends to speak in plural, describing things in present tense and using a lot of numbers, such as “7 Things to Include in Your Brand’s Social Media Strategy.” We also tweet a lot of encouraging expressions (“check out,” “look for”), words signifying importance and newness (“recent,” “latest”), and indirect questions. Asking questions like, “How much does transparency matter in native advertising?” incites people to read the articles.

“There is great use of the word ‘the,'” according to Relative Insight’s analysis report. “This might seem irrelevant at first, but looking closer, it is a valuable tool used, as it signifies that they information they have is not just any information; it is the information, and that is what makes it relevant to the potential reader.”

Perry has tweeting habits similar to ClickZ’s use of the word “the.” “She talks using exclusive terms, which obviously creates the sensation that things are important without directly using the word ‘important,” the report says.

katy-perry-twitter

The similarities end there, as the seriousness of ClickZ’s headline-heavy Twitter feed is in stark contrast to Perry’s, which is personal and peppered with slang and emojis, largely coming off as the way she would speak in person. Perry also appears more positive and playful than ClickZ, frequently tweeting funny pictures and sentiments about how happy she is. Another difference is the pop star’s ultra-specific hashtags: #everyoneeatscandytoday versus #email.

Adverbs are the biggest grammatical difference between the two feeds. Perry’s are time-based (“now,” “tonight”) while ClickZ most often uses adverbs to describe how to do something, how someone else has done something, or why you should do something.

The biggest difference, overall, is how much Perry interacts with other users, whether it’s thanking fans for their support or admonishing Betty Crocker for discontinuing rainbow chip frosting on the eve of her 30th birthday. Wilson thinks ClickZ can learn a thing or two from the pop star, in that regard.

“That’s not something you can do without a small investment, but I wonder if there’s something to gain from her sort of personalized approach,” he says.

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