by John Haydon (follow him at @johnhaydon) from Corporate Dollar
It’s not about you. I know, sounds cold but it’s true. It’s really not about you. It’s not about the number of followers YOU have on Twitter. It’s about how much value THEY gain from following you.
But in some ways, it’s not about them either.
In many ways it’s about your 2nd and even 3rd degree network – the folks who follow your followers.
It’s all about reach.
“But I have 7,357 followers on Twitter! Certainly that would mean that I reach more folks than my next door neighbor who has only 987 followers.”
Maybe. But maybe not.
Like my junk?
What’s powerful about Twitter is the potential for your message to be exposed to thousands of folks way beyond your immediate connections. This happens when your followers retweet something you posted or the followers of your followers (2nd degree folks) retweet something the your followers retweeted. There are a few tools that can measure this potential reach, but let’s focus on two:
1. Twinfluence
Twinfluence will show you four useful measurements of your Twitter network:
Second-Order Network: The number of folks that follow your followers. These are the folks that are exposed to replies and retweets from your followers. The more useful and/or *interesting your posts, the more likely your second-order network will retweet to their followers. Your 1st degree followers plus all their followers equals your reach.
Velocity: The average number of followers and second-order followers attracted per day is velocity. The larger your Twitter network is, the faster it grows. Again, posts that are useful and/or interesting.
Social Capital: The degree to which your followers have a high number of followers themselves determines your social capital. A user whose followers have an average of 200 followers each has a much more limited reach than another use whose followers have an average of 2,000 followers. Even if these two users have the same number of followers, their potential reach (the real story) is completely different.
Centralization: This indicates the degree to which you converse with a only a few other users. If, for example, you converse with only three users who each have 5,000 followers, your network is considered “fragile”. If one of these three users unfollows you, it could have a huge impact on your overall reach.
2. Twitter-Friends
Twitter-friends is a data geeks wet dream. A lot of very useful data that’s worth spending time understanding. For now though, start with these three measurements:
Network overlap: This graph shows you the level of two-way conversations you have with folks. As you become more “popular” on Twitter, it will be hard to tell how many replies from folks that you’ve missed. In my case, you’ll notice that the amount of incoming posts to me (@johnhaydon) is larger than my outgoing replies to folks. However, the overlap of these streams shows a fairly healthy two-way dialogue.
Conversation Quotient: This indicates the level of “spaminess”. The Twitter-Friends FAQ states, “People with a high CQ are using Twitter to have direct conversations with other users. People with a low CQ are using it more for broadcasting links or status messages.”
Retweet Quotient: This tells you how useful your junk is 
. And we all know that long term success with any social media is driven by sincerity and usefulness.
An understanding of your Twitter network’s strengths and weaknesses will give you a good starting point in the direction that you want to go with Twitter.
@Sheamus
Definitely useful. My concern is I’m always edgy about any service that wants your password as well as your username. Despite the assurances to the contrary, one of these is going to be a scam and a lot of Twitter users could be affected as a result. Twinfluence needs your password, whereas TwitterFriends does not. I personally found the latter service far more useful, and of course it’s reassuring that there is no risk to your personal security.
I wrote an article about Twitter analytics myself earlier today. I looked at Twitalyzer, Twitter Grader and Twitter Counter, none of which require your password to function, which I think is the way it needs to be unless the application is coming from Twitter itself. Which, ultimately, is going to be the case. I wonder if Twitter’s next step is not to be bought, but to buy some of these other Twitter bolt-ons themselves?
@johnhaydon
Darren,
Very good timing (and kinda funny)! I just posted an article on my blog about the value of guest posts.
Thanks again for having me.
John
@minorissues
Hi John,
I was thinking about the followers-following ratio lately, and wrote something about it on my blog: http://www.minorissues.be/2009/03/01/twitter-rankings-sense-and-sensibility/
How do you feel about that, interested in your opinion!
Cheers and thanks,
Steven
@tumblemoose
Being a self proclaimed stats nut, it was fun going to the sites and seeing where I stand with Twitter. Although the link for Twitter-Friends produced a 500 error, I’ll check back later to see.
For Twinfluence, what does the ranking number mean? I was 95. I assume that’s ok?
Anyway, good stuff. Thanks
George
@johnhaydon
@Tumblemoose – the link for Twitter-Friends should be: http://twitter-friends.com/
John
@fivekoi
Nice article for explaining how Twinfluence works. I’ve checked in with it a couple times, I enjoy checking it and find the results to be insightful.
That said, I do have a question. How is the secondary influence determined? What sort of algorithm is being used and how are duplicate secondary followers accounted for? ie. If a person is being followed by ten of my followers does that person count as ten people, one person, or something in between [to somehow account for the increased influence of the multiple sources that can RT which helps build momentum]?
I ask because with a mere 284 followers I’m being told my secondary reach is over 2.3 million. Which feels great as a momentary ego fluff until I start looking at the math and ponder, 1/3 of all users? …out of 284? How is this calculated? Just curious.
Thanks.
@NateDesmond
This is great! Thank you! Could you do a post on how to make your twitter network healthier?
Thanks,
Nate
@johnhaydon
@Nate – Yes. That’s a great follow-up to this post!
@sjmonk5
It was very interesting to learn about the different stats these two tools track. When I first started with Twitter I was using it more to just broadcast information, but the more I have learned, the more I have tried to become involved with others, retweet interesting information and participate all around.
I am *this* close to having the go ahead to put the nonprofit I work for on Twitter, and I am thrilled to know that tools like this are available so I can keep tabs on where I’m going with it.
@AskJamesHolmes
John – Thank you for the reminder of Twinfluence and the useful data the site offers. I am like thousands of marketers online who are trying to understand how to fully leverage Twitter to grow our networks, provide value, and grow our businesses. I believe by using these analytics we can be purposeful in how we grow a vibrant network with true reach. I agree with Sheamus note of caution about providing you password to third party developers of Twitter applications. I tend to investigate how popular a new application is to determine how many people have used the service and assess whether any concerns have been expressed.
Thank you for this informative post.
James
http://Twitter.com/AskJamesHolmes
@remarkablogger
Great stuff, John! I never really thought about ways to examine “2nd tier” data. I do pay attention to retweets of my tweets in TweetDeck, though, as a rough guide to influence.
@thebenchs
Am mr nobody, i have to inprove a lot on my twitter more in my personal account so litle by litle improve.
Than you for the pots.
@timandren
Nice one John. Here’s a similar take on social media in general.
Social Media. It’s not about you.
http://tinyurl.com/czx2cm
@johnhaydon
James,
I think the best way to “how to fully leverage Twitter to grow our network” ultimately is about three things:
1) Offer value and utility
2) Sincerely support and promote the agenda of another
3) Measure, rinse, and go back to step 1
John
@Jodith
Yeah, I’m seriously not going to use any service that wants to know my password. What do they need it for? Other analyzer tools can provide stats without needing your password.
Honestly, I have to raise an eyebrow at anyone recommending a service that wants your password without showing a good reason to need it for the functionality they offer.
@johnhaydon
@Michael – Thanks, bud. I love how these tools give you a broader and deeper picture on 2nd tier folks.
@Jodith – Only Twinfluence requires username and password to pull your followers into the analysis. I’ve seen this tool mentioned on a few reputable blogs, including TwiTip.com:
http://www.twitip.com/what-twitter-tools-and-services-do-you-use/
That said, you should follow your own comfort level regarding security.
John
@cbedon
Great explaination of Twinfluence, and nice find on Twitter friends, didn’t know about that one. Great tool!
@johnhaydon
@Cristhian – Thanks. Glad it was helpful!
@iamkrissy
Excellent points. Thanks for explaining this
@OutsideMyBrain
John,
Thanks for the review and the helpful information. I think the biggest thing that this article points out is…. “IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU!”. I wish everyone could figure this one out. The sad thing is, most people that NEED to read this, won’t because they’re too busy “spewing” their own junk to pay attention.
One thing that I thought interesting is that Twinfluence says that I am ranked #28 in terms of my reach on Twitter. This is interesting as there are others ranked lower than I that have much larger follower bases. You would think by virtue of sheer numbers, that their reach would be larger than mine. Do you know what would cause that? Just curious.
Thanks again!
Bradley
@OutsideMyBrain
@mpdotcom
This is a great article worth studying, I’ve delicious’d it, and will pass it on. Thank you!
@johnhaydon
@Krissy – You’re welcome!
@Bradley – Your reach is calculated by the number of followers that your followers have. For example, if you follow a thousand @probloggers, your reach will be much larger than if you followed a thousand @johnhaydons. Get it?
John
@josephgelb
I have noticed most traffic comes from people in the network or off of the feeds. I am not interesting enough on the tweet to really draw the love.
@johnhaydon
@Joe - Being interested is probably an important first step. We love you anyhow!
@phillipgibb
Nice one,
Now how do I improve my health now that I know that I am fragile
I really enjoy the interaction that twitter offers, it is really fun to RT and reply and on the odd occasion to DM, but it awesome when that twitter love is offered back at you, woot.
Twitter rocks
@johnhaydon
@Phillip – I’ll be writing a few posts on Twitter health.
@phillipgibb
Nice, I will certainly be reading them
@thegraphicmac
Thanks for posting this. I hadn’t come across TwitterFriends. I found it quite interesting. While I’m pretty much in an acceptable range in all the stats, I can see that I do need to make an effort to reply to people who @ me more often than I do. Sometimes I just feel funny replying a day after the @ was sent…
@twittergator
Do any of these potential reach measures take into account that alot of your followers and 2nd order followers may follow each other?
For those that have asked /mentioned about Twitter applications needing your password. To fetch certain data from Twitter’s API, applications must have your log in details for authorisation. A system that will authorise trusted applications is being looked into by Twitter and will mean no need for you to enter your password. I think eventually we will see an itunes style app store, maybe even including paid apps which would be one way of monitizing Twitter. Ultimately I believe it will improve the users Twitter experience.
There is a safe way to try any Twitter app asking for your password, which you can read here.
@johnhaydon
@Ade – Yes – I believe both of these tools have algorithms that take into account that a lot of one’s followers and 2nd order followers might follow each other.
@codem
very useful links, thanks a lot!