Washington Post
The Washington Post Twitter account seems to post only news related articles. These articles are directed at adults from their 30s onwards. They utilise keywords in their tweets such as “analysis”, “opinion” and interesting topics like “Trump” in order for users to be able to search and find articles that are relevant and useful. There are every limited pop culture or entertainment related articles through this account which means that it most likely does not reach younger audiences which could mean that they were deemed to not be part of the target audience. Also, the majority of the articles are about issues that are aimed at Americans which makes sense seeing as it is the “Washington post” Twitter account. This would also mean that people from other nations would not access this twitter feed regularly unless there was an issue that they were interested in and sought out the information. The account has a following of 14.5 million subscribers which shows that is it successful as a high percentage of twitter users deem their information important enough to be following in order to receive updates regularly.
The Australian Library & Information Association
The Australian Library & Information Association Twitter account seems to post to a relatively small demographic of library users and professionals. Just because it is posting to a smaller demographic does not mean that the content is less professional or less important. The content that this page seems to tweet or retweet include information about reading programs, library initiatives and articles and links about library memberships and opportunities for those members. The target audience seems to be librarians, students and parents who may be looking for opportunities for reading or similar activities for their children. This Twitter account seems to be fairly successful but as successful as The Washington Post. This account has 10 800 followers who subscribe to its feed.
When looking at both accounts it becomes clearer why one account has a larger following. The Washington Post account is linked closely with the news publication of the same name. This means that the readers of this would likely follow the account in order to get access to breaking news before it hits the shelves in physical print. This paper is also well known around the world. I am based in Australia and despite this, I know of the Washington Post. Whereas, the ALIA account has a fairly small target market. It does what it needs to do well, however, it is not widely known and therefore can’t be as successful as an account that has affiliations with larger information channels such as a newspaper.
References
Australian Library and Information Association. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/alianational
The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/washingtonpost
