Tuesday 29 July 2014

Why is this Tweet So Popular?!

Before you read on, I should tell you that this post includes a link to a very sexually graphic photograph. Still with me? Okay.

In 2012 I spent a month getting my blog retweeted by as many porn stars as possible to get some exposure to my writing. Mental idea. But it worked.

After I'd written and uploaded the post I showed it to all the contributors to say thanks. One of my retweeters was Erin Marxxx.


She replied to say I was welcome. This particular tweet is here

Take a look at the stats for this tweet. Nearly 2 years after Ms Marxxx sent this tweet, it's still racking up favourites and retweets. At the time of writing, this tweet has 53 retweets and 171 favourites.

My first question: How are people finding this tweet? It isn't just an old tweet; it's a reply. It wouldn't show up in someone's tweet feed unless they were following both me and Ms Marxxx. And even then, it would only have shown up at the time of tweeting in 2012.

My second question: Why are so many people favouriting it? Granted, there's a picture there, but isn't the internet awash with pictures- not to mention videos- with this kind of content?

My third: Are these accounts bots? Even if so, why are they bots that scour old replies and favourite them? What purpose would that serve? Are they searching for pictures?

And fourth: Is it to do with her large-for-a-pornstar 115K follower count?

It's something that has just made me curious over the last few years. I asked a few of the people who recently favourited it why they did so, but got no response. I also asked Ms Marxxx herself. I got a “lol”. The internet doesn't seem to shed light on the reasons for its popularity. Can you?