Lists are great for creating order. To this end Stephen has created a useful directory of PR people and journalists that use Twitter.

But does it tell us any more than that? What level of influence do PR people using Twitter have? Is Twitter being used to change opinions? After all, influencing opinions is our raison d’être.

I had a quick exchange with Stephen yesterday about this – via direct messages on Twitter as it happens. It turns out that he’d been thinking along the same lines. Wouldn’t it be interesting to push his list of PR Twitter users through Twitter Grader.

Twitter Grader is a neat online application that quantifies relative influence on a percentile basis within the Twitter community. Its scoring is based on the number of followers that a user has, the power of that network of followers, the frequency of updates and the completeness of the user profile.

So after a late-night deal with an e-lancer here are the top 50 ranked PR users on Twitter along with their score. There are three disclaimers: first, I used Stephen’s list as of the end of yesterday, second, the data results were correct as of around 3am this morning, and third, any user that protects their updates has had to be excluded.

1. 99.9, Neville Hobson, @jangles, Bond-i
2. 99.4, Drew Benvie, @drewb, Hotwire
3. 98.9, Stephen Davies, @stedavies, 3WPR
4. 97.8, Jon Silk, @prgeek, Lewis PR
5. 96.4, David Brain, @DavidBrain, Edelman
6. 96.4, Ben Matthews, @benrmatthews, Hotwire
7. 95.9, Stuart Bruce, @stuartbruce, Wolfstar
8. 95.1, Dirk Singer, @dirkthecow, Cow
9. 95, Melanie Seasons, @mseasons, Online Fire
10. 95, Lewis Webb, @lewiswebb, Shiny Red
11. 93, Michael Litman, @litmanlive, Splendid Communications
12. 93, Johnny Rosemont, @rosemontjd, Weber Shandwick
13. 92, Vikki Chowney, @vikkichowney, Six Degrees
14. 92, Simon Collister, @simoncollister, Weber Shandwick
15. 92, Marshall Manson, @marshallmanson, Edelman
16. 92, Justin Kerr-Stevens, @jkerrstevens, Central Government
17. 92, Jaz Cummins, @JazCummins, Shiny Red
18. 90, Jonathan Hopkins, @jopkins, Shed
19. 90, Jed Hallam, @jedhallam, Wolfstar
20. 90, Jason Mical, @brothermagneto, Edelman
21. 89, Jonny Bentwood, @JonnyBentwood, Edelman
22. 89, Chris Reed, @Chris_Reed, Fishburn Hedges
23. 89, Andy Merchant, @andymerch, Liberate Media
24. 88, Stephen Waddington, @wadds, Rainier PR
25. 88, Justin Hayward, @justinhayward, Telnic
26. 88, Brendan Cooper, @BrendanCooper, Fleishman Hillard
27. 87, Mat Morrison, @mediaczar, Porter Novelli
28. 87, Ged Carroll, @r_c, Waggener Edstrom
29. 87, Becky McMichael, @bmcmichael, Ruder Finn
30. 86, Tim Hoang, @timhoang, Porter Novelli
31. 86, Rax Lakhani, @raxlakhani, Splendid Communications
32. 86, Dom Whitehurst, @domw, Hotwire
33. 86, Dan Leach, @danleach, Hill & Knowlton
34. 86, Daljit Bhurji, @Daljit_Bhurji, Diffusion
35. 85, Katie Moffet, @katiemoffet, freelance
36. 85, Gill Edwards, @gill_edwards, freelance
37. 84, Tom Malcom, @tommalcolm, Diffusion
38. 84, Rob Brown, @robbrown, Staniforth
39. 84, Mark Borkowski, @MarkBorkowski, Borkowski PR
40. 84, Katy Howell, @katyhowell, Immediate Future
41. 83, Sherrilynne Starkie, @sherrilynne, Strive PR
42. 83, Niall Cook, @niallcook, Hill & Knowlton
43. 83, Kerry Bridge, @KerryatDell, Dell
44. 83, Armand David, @division6, Brands2Life
45. 82, James Warren, @jamesdotwarren, Weber Shandwick
46. 81, Andrew B Smith, @andismit, escherman
47. 81, Alex Pearmain, @AlexPearmain, Fishburn Hedges
48. 80, Richard Millington, @RichMillington, freelance
49. 80, Phil Sheard, @philsheard, Hotwire
50. 79, Eb Adeyeri, @eba, Lewis PR

Its worth noting that Twinfluence, another Twitter measurement tool, would produce a different set of results. It uses a more complex two dimensional algorithm, based on reach ranking and relative scores.

Is there anything we can learn from this? For anyone that has used Twitter for six months or more there are no surprises. Everyone named is well known and many of the individuals listed are common to Matt Watson's listing of top UK PR bloggers.

No agencies dominate the list. In fact no agency has more than four people in the top 50. Digital PR is as much about individuals building out their own networks as it about agency’s building digital skills, whether that be in specialist teams or through agency-wide educational programmes.

Twitter’s value as a business tool is still being explored. I have been completely converted from sceptic to advocate in the last 12 months. But views remain polarised: Twitter-haters dismiss it as self-indulgent and a waste of time, whereas Twitter-lovers enjoy the openness and the ability to make connections that it allows. That individuals within the PR industry are at the forefront of this debate has got to be a good thing.

Other related posts:

Hotwire heads up preeple table, Ben Matthews
UK preeple on Twitter, Michael Litman
More tips on supercharging your PR efforts with Twitter (a case study in open source PR), Andrew Smith
Update: UK preeple on Twitter Wiki, Michael Litman

Tags: twitter, PR

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