Twitter Influencer Or Influencee? – Understanding the Concept

Being in digital (social media) marketing, I’ve always had a tough time finding, analyzing and describing just what makes someone a key influencer as it relates to Twitter. 

Talk to anyone with the account, and they are quick to tell you just how many hundreds, or even thousands, of followers they have.. and personally? I find myself thinking… “is that enough to justify your digital success?”

My employer, Chris Herbert, has launched an experiment to discover what it takes to reach 100k following through communicating, engaging, and openly sharing with his current and potential followers. It’s been a tough battle and learning experience for both of us – as we regularly collaborate and brainstorm ideas/concepts.

It wasn’t until yesterday that I had an epiphany….

How many times have you asked the Twitter Bragger “Yea, but how many are you following?”

Consider the following, if someone had 1,000 followers, but follower 1,500, does that make them influencial? No. They’re being influenced by 1,500 where as only 1,000 are influenced by them.. that makes them an “influencee”.

The key then, it seems, is in the ratio between those you follow and those following you.

For Instance: 

If you’re IR was calculated as a 1:1 following (those you follow) vs. follower (those following you) ratio, you would be considered neutral, being influenced just as much as you are influential.

It would therefore be safe to say that a higher ratio of “following” would indicate a less influencial account, and  a higher ratio of “followers” would suggest an account more influenced by the Twitter world.

Stay tuned for examples that will either prove or debunk my theory!

Read More: TWITTER ANALYSIS: iNFLUENCER, OR INFLUENCEE? PART 2. TEST THE THEORY

3 thoughts on “Twitter Influencer Or Influencee? – Understanding the Concept”

  1. Pingback: Miz.NEW | TESTING THE IMPORTANCE OF “FOLLOW BACKS”: Mid-Point Review

  2. I like how you’re simplifying the measure of “influencer” and taking into account how a person or brand tends to get followers through natural follow-back. However, what about the ratio of # of followers to # of outbound tweets? One might say that an influencer has a lot of followers compared to the number of outbound tweets.

    • Glad you brought that up. I’ve been looking into klouts process for determining influencer levels and am working on developing both my process, and a comparative post

Leave a comment