Twitter hoarding billions in cash experts say should be shared with its users

By Tom Campbell via SWNS

Social media platforms should share their multi-billion pound revenues with the actors, pop stars and athletes who post viral content, experts claim.

Researchers recommend sites like Twitter should launch a platform to split the revenue with high-profile figures, who generate huge amounts of engagement.

Getting celebs to fight for attention on social media would also boost the platform's bottom line, scientists said.

Competition between big names on social media with similar characteristics increases their followers' activity by 7 percent, according to the new study.

Famous people like actors, pop stars or athletes, compete for the limelight on social media platforms, which can translate into ticket sales, better contracts, or lucrative product endorsements, scientists said.

Now, researchers have found intensifying this battle for attention by rewarding celebrities for posts would also benefit social media platforms like Twitter.

Author Professor Rubera at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, said: “Twitter would do better to promote a revenue-sharing program that would be capable of increasing engagement at a very low cost.”

Tweets from players of the US National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), posted during the 2013 season, were analyzed by the researchers.

Famous players like Alex Morgan, Hope Solo, Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, and Sydney Leroux were very popular on social media platforms.

Their popularity was very concentrated, both in terms of followers and mentions, with the four most popular players receiving 75 percent of mentions.

Competition on the social media platform was between players with similar characteristics, the researchers found.

While players received more attention when they tweeted, it stole the limelight from others with similar traits, such as being linked to the same team or being perceived to be physically attractive.

This fierce competition is responsible for one-third of the players’ tweets and boosts fanbase engagement by seven percent, the researchers found.

The amount of attention they received depended on how much they posted and how well they performed on the pitch.

On average, tweeting boosted the player's attention share by 19 percent, while scoring a goal increased it by 20 percent.

Despite this, their posting activity was relatively low, the study found.

Professor Rubera added: "Social platforms could invest to further increase competition among high-profile users and, consequently, user engagement."

Two revenue-sharing programs, which rewarded players for each message they posted, were simulated by the researchers.

In the first case, only a restricted group of top players, responsible for the lion's share of user engagement, were paid.

In the other, the revenues were shared among all the tweeting players, which ​proved to be more effective and less expensive for the platform.

​Professor Rubera said: “We estimate that a $100,000 [£74,335] investment could lead to a 1.6 percent rise in user engagement."

The findings were published in the journal Marketing Science.