Imagine if you had a million followers on Twitter. Sound nice?
Well...it may not be all its cracked up to be, at least according to a group of researchers that conducted a comprehensive study to examine the influence a person with a million followers truly had.
Here's how the analysis worked.
Researchers Meeyoung Cha, Hamed Haddadi, Fabricio Benevenuto, and Krishna P. Gummadi examined 54 million active Twitter accounts-(yes, that's not a misprint) and looked into metrics such as number of retweets, (RT's) mentions, (MT's), indegree influence (number of followers), and new follows based on RT's and MT's.
Their synopsis?
People that have gargantuan numbers of followers may "appear" popular on Twitter, however, it did not correlate to influence. That is, having a million followers does not imply people are being influenced enough to RT and MT your content.
Here's a direct link to the study:
http://an.kaist.ac.kr/~mycha/docs/icwsm2010_cha.pdf
So...who has influence and who does not?
Take for example Guy Kawasaki, he was heavily retweeted for his deft content, whereas Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher were heavily mentioned, but the percentage of their RT's was mute compared to someone like Kawasaki. Hmm.
Then, when they looked at the averages it became more clear. Twitter account holders that promoted influential content had RT percentages that eclipsed the celebs by a large margin.
Proof positive that quality, not quantity, rules the influence roost. Secondly, individuals that limited their tweets to a single topic or "like" topics had the most influence.
This Venn Diagram tells the tale:
The straight dope?
Celebs with high follower counts induced more MT's merely because of their name recognition as opposed to the influence of the content of the celeb's tweet. Influencers on the other hand, were predominantly everyday users that focused on tweeting poignant content.
In short, influence is not entirely determined by quantitative means, however, the number of followers (indegree) is not indicative of your "true" reach. By extending a personal touch and tweeting helpful content, you'll reap the rewards of influencing people in ways that stick. In addition, if your tweets change the heart of just one person, think of the impact that can have.
Need proof? Ghandi has influenced millions and yet was influenced by a single man's belief in him during his twenties. Which implies, you may never know the impact your Tweet might have on a person. Even if it just brings a smile, that's usually worth an RT in my book!
Case in point, someone RT'd my blog and after thanking them, we became friends and today, have met in person and she's helping to promote my forthcoming book. It's all from showing people you care. It can't get any simpler than that.