Influencers on Twitter: Why Popularity Matters, But Only a Little

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@Steve_Law works as an account executive developing online engagement strategy for clients in Asia, he is also an avid participant in social media and loves to write and blog about new technology movements and future trends in media.

Fast Company’s Influence Project concludes this week (July 6^th – August 15^th) and it is fair to assume that the people over at Fast Company got the hint when it ended up rubbing a few people the wrong way. Facing the controversy, Jason Harris, one of the masterminds behind the Influence Project said

“It’s the label we put on it. We called it ‘The Influence Project,’ and we decided to challenge social media influencers to prove that self-proclaimed “influencers” can get their network to take action and support them”.

Austin Carr, reporter for Fast Company commented “of course, as we assumed, it’s extremely difficult to track influence, or even define what influence means on the Web. Is influence the same as popularity? Can it exist in a space as infinite as the Internet?”

Carr also made reference to research conducted by HP Labs, looking into social media and the feeling of ‘passivity’ online, where to be truly influential, users must catch the attention of others and make them overcome their predisposition to remain passive; this formed the main body of HP’s IP (influence over passivity) algorithm.

Why Popularity Doesn’t Create Influence:

Earlier studies looking at online influencers have already revealed that the key to influential power does not lie in a user’s popularity (or number of followers) but social engagement instead; this is one of the reasons why celebrities on Twitter have only a marginal influence when compared to social media heavyweights such as Chris Brogan.

Twitter users are generally regarded as ‘passive information consumers’ and what truly determines an influencer, is a person that is able to convert the homogeneous landscape of passive users into active community of conversationalists.

HP’s concluding research found that the most influential Twitter users by IP-influence are: @mashable, @jokoanwar, @google, @aplusk, @syfy, @smashingmag, @michellemalkin, @theonion, @rww, @breakingnews

Popularity Leverages Influence

HP Labs recognized that ‘passive information consumers’ are those who rarely forwarded information onto others within their network via a retweet; however, I would also add that hyperconnectivity on Twitter breeds an information consumer that will actively filter through content in a bid to reduce information consumption and overload; this is why popularity and influencers go hand in hand on Twitter. For example Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) and Felicia Day (@feliciaday) are celebrities that have leveraged an influential role on Twitter, firstly, through the visibility factor and then by means of highly retweetable content; of course, visibility within your own network is what counts the most.

The passivity of a user can be overcome by sheer numbers, see Derek Sivers leadership lessons from a dancing guy! More retweets lead to higher visibility and which in turn increases the level of conversation happening in the Twitter.

Looking back at HP’s IP-influence results, it is apparent that news and media sources are the most influential users on Twitter (even if one of them is the satirical Onion news)! It will be interesting to see who will be named Fast Company’s most Influential person when these users are excluded from the equation.