6th May 2009 – Jonathan Ross is the most influential twitterer in the world, according to the JCPR Twitter Index released today. When it comes to the twittersphere, the authority of the bad boy of the BBC rates higher than Downing Street in 12th place and Barack Obama at 17.
Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is in second place with Stephen Fry a close third.
JCPR, one of the leading consumer PR agencies in the UK, has produced the index that, unlike existing league tables, measures influence instead of mere popularity. Using a specially developed algorithm, JCPR tracked famous twitterers around the world and ranked the top 200 according to a variety of factors including the interest that their posts generated amongst their readership and their involvement with the Twitter community. Metrics analysed included the number and authority of someone’s followers, together with the frequency with which a reader refers to your Twitter name. Also it looked at how many times an individual’s posts are ‘retweeted’ by others.
According to JCPR’s survey, in addition to ‘Wossy’ at number 1, there are six UK twitterers in the global top twenty most influential – Stephen Fry is in third place; Graham Linehan, the brains behind Father Ted, Black Books and the IT Crowd is at number 5; Downing Street is at 12; Jason Bradbury, host of Channel 5’s Gadget Show, is at number 13 and Philip Schofield of ITV’s This Morning is at number 14.
Comedians have really jumped on the social media bandwagon making up 40% of the UK top twenty. “While this is a fun and different way to look at Twitter, there is a serious side to it as well,” said Jackie Cooper, founding partner of JCPR, part of the Edelman Group.
“We are always trying to help our clients understand the influence that certain celebrities have over particular sections of society. Behind all the glitz and glamour that goes with fame, it‘s important to understand where real influence lies, which is often very different to mere popularity. The JCPR Twitter Index helps us define that within the hugely dynamic social media space.”
JCPR’s index will make interesting reading to US actor Ashton Kutcher, who recently went head to head with CNN to be the first twitterer with 1 million followers. He even took out bill board advertising to achieve the goal. However, when it comes to influence he slips to fourth place.
Ashton and his wife, Demi Moore (ranked number 6), were in large part responsible for making Britain’s Got Talent singing star Susan Boyle famous in the US. It was only when Demi confessed that the unlikely singing sensation had moved her to tears after seeing her on Ashton’s Twitter page, that mainstream media and YouTube views exploded.
To view the methodology, please visit: Technobabble 2.0.
