Information Diffusion on Twitter: Everyone Has Its Chance, But All Chances Are Not Equal

Twitter is a Web 2.0 social network which attracted much attention recently for its usage as an alternative media for information diffusion. From the recent events in Arab countries, to natural disaster such as earthquakes or tsunamis, Twitter has proven to be a credible alternative to traditional means of information diffusion. Relatively few works have been done on this question of information diffusion, and in particular on the relative importance of different kind of users on this question. In this paper, we show that all users are not equal on the aspect of information diffusion. By investigating thoroughly the retweet chain lengths of users on a large dataset, we found that the number of followers of users plays an important role in their capacity to propagate information. From our observations we propose a very simple model, which is accurate enough to generate realistic length of retweet chains on the network. We consequently show, by studying a Twitter dataset centered on the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami in March 2011, that such a crisis impact greatly the propagation of information. Finally, we use our results to discuss on the means of improving information diffusion to reach targeted users.