When Politicians Tweet: A Study on the Members of the German Federal Diet

In this preliminary study we compare the characteristics of retweets and replies on more than 350,000 messages collected by following members of the German Federal Diet on Twitter. We find significant differences in the characteristics pointing to distinct types of usages for retweets and replies. Using time series and regression analysis we observe that the likelihood of a politician using replies increases with typical leisure times while retweets occur constant over time. Including formal references increases the probability of a message being retweeted but drops its chance of being replied. This hints to a more professional use for retweets while replies tend to have a personal connotation.