Top 50 Most Listed Twitter Users from the Top 50 Most Followed
October 30th, 2009Posted by: J.W. Crump Posted in Twitter
Twitter recently opened up a new feature for Twitter users: the ability to lump users into ‘lists’. Users can then add or delete their friends from these lists as they see fit. Following a thousand users, but only want to see your 15 close friends’ tweets? Done. Just create a list of them (may I suggest the title ‘bffs4ever’?), and then view that list within your account. AS of now, more than 50% of users have access to lists, and a full rollout is imminent.
Another positive feature of lists, as noted by TechCrunch, is that new users can follow a well-created list to get them started on the platform. A potential downside, suggested by eWeek, is that lists may tarnish the open feeling of communication that Twitter champions. Will users start looking at their lists after they login instead of their whole buffet of tweets? We’ll have to wait to see the fallout.
One interesting question that popped into my head was whether the most-followed Twitter users would also be the most-listed. At this point, the same celebrities and organizations are going to stay on their high follower pedestals, but now there’s a new metric in town. Some of the popular kids may lose their lunch table and have to eat in the phone booth (schools still have those, right?).
Twitterholic.com provided me with a cohesive list of the most-followed Tweeps. I went through each of the Top 50 accounts in order to get an updated amount of followers as well as the new listed metric. Before looking, I assumed that the rankings would be nearly the same. I was very wrong. (Please note that I ranked the 50 most-followed people against only the other most-followed. The data does not represent a list of the 50 most-listed, at large.)
I uploaded a full spreadsheet of the data below, so check that out, and I’ll note the highlights. Apparently there’s a big difference in being followed and listed in a Twitter list (‘Twist’?). Taking a peek at the actual people, they are all very recognizable (except for Lily Rose Allen, who I had to Wiki-stalk even after reading her tweets). Why would there be a difference in their rankings?
Taking a look at the actual tweets provides some clues. The people that have a higher listed ranking than followed ranking provide frequently (but not too frequently) updated tweets that are well written and either witty, news-worthy, or interesting. People who don’t provide good content have a much lower listed ranking as compared to their followed ranking (Looking at you, Kim Kardashian).
Users aren’t going to un-follow people often after they have started to follow them, but Twists are a different beast. Those can change at a whim and other users would have no control over them. Also, when they are being created, only those Twitter users that have provided good tweets in the past are likely to be thought of. Think of the amount of followers one has as the kind of popularity a HS cheerleader has, and the amount of lists one is on as the popularity one has in college with closer friends and colleagues.
Top 5 Users by Followers
Ashton Kutcher
Britney Spears
Ellen DeGeneres
CNN Breaking News
Top 5 Users by Times Listed
Barack Obama
Pete Cashmore (you know, the Mashable guy)
CNN Breaking News
Ellen DeGeneres
Taylor Swift (though Kanye rarely lets her finish her tweets)
Felicia Day and Pete Cashmore are the two users listed in a far bigger proportion to their followers (both ranking 29 places higher) while the biggest drops from followers to lists were 50cent (down 23 spots) and Kim Kardashian (down 22 spots).
Of course, lists are still very new so this could change as more users have access to them and begin using them. Let’s hope lists do their jobs of making Twitter slightly more organized and perhaps spurring better content from some important users.
October 31st, 2009 at 2:33 pm
[...] these lines, my colleague J.W. Crump posted an interesting look at the Top 100 Twitter User list. He basically reordered the top users list to sort by the [...]
November 1st, 2009 at 12:23 am
Currently, the top 5 most listed accounts on twitter are Obama, Taylor Swift, CNN, Ellen and shitmydadsays (in that order).
November 1st, 2009 at 10:43 pm
[...] iban a ser tomadas por muchos como una medida de su ego y es interesante el análisis que hacen ImpactWatch: The Top 50 Most Listed comparando a las 50 personas con más followers en Twitter y ordenandolos de acuerdo a la cantidad [...]
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:49 am
[...] iban a ser tomadas por muchos como una medida de su ego y es interesante el análisis que hacen ImpactWatch: The Top 50 Most Listed comparando a las 50 personas con más followers en Twitter y ordenandolos de acuerdo a la cantidad [...]
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:23 am
[...] contaba el otro día, Twitter ya permite crear listas de forma nativa en la misma web. La gente de ImpactWatch ha hecho una lista de los twitteros que en más listas aparecen basándose en el top de los twitter [...]
February 19th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Where are all the great thinkers and doers – it’s a sad commentary that, with the obvious exception of Obama, the list is filled with cotton candy!