Comments on: What’s Your Twitter Reach? Find Out With This Formula

By: Cijo Abraham Mani

Cijo Abraham Mani — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:09:45 +0000

I think that the number of active lists that follow you is a greater authority for your reach out on Twitter.

You can read the same on http://www.gseo.net/blog/post/257

By: Gabriel Goldenberg

Gabriel Goldenberg — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:02:08 +0000

“It would work in to some extent in weeding out the sheep, put would also punish genuine influencers who are followed by the attention whores.”

I’m not sure that’s accurate. Can you explain why?

By: Gabriel Goldenberg

Gabriel Goldenberg — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:00:58 +0000

That’s what I’m thinking, Jeff.

By: Gabriel Goldenberg

Gabriel Goldenberg — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:59:53 +0000

Excellent points here Willy. The fact of having interesting tweets to read is definitely a reason for some folks to login. So while you may monopolize their attention by being the only person they follow, there may not be much attention to monopolize int he first place!

So then the question is how do you work in rate of logging in and time spent on Twitter into the above formula? I mentioned those factors, but here you have an excellent demonstration of why they need to be worked into the formula to make it more valuable.

A low followed:followers ratio is also an important metric. Now that I think about it, it helps you boost the reach you have amongst “2nd level followers” (e.g. those who follow your followers) because you’ll be competing with fewer folks for retweets.

By: James Duthie

James Duthie — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:18:08 +0000

Interesting concept Gab. It would work in to some extent in weeding out the sheep, put would also punish genuine influencers who are followed by the attention whores.

I’m with you. Twitter is about relationships for me, and you simply can’t connect in a meaningful way with thousands of people. I flat out reject anyone with over 10,000 followers unless i know they’re a genuine influencer.

By: wbw_Jeff

wbw_Jeff — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:39:14 +0000

Good points, I’ve been thinking the same thing. But is there a tool that you can use to get ‘Your Followers Average Number of People Followed’? Can it be done through the API?

By: Willy

Willy — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 03:46:57 +0000

Hey Gab,

I haven’t given the idea a lot of thought yet, but I see one immediate cause for concern.

This metric would heavily favor having followers who don’t follow many people. Your formula, as it stands, is saying that a person who follows 1 person is the most valuable follower.

I would disagree with that. I think that there is probably a sweet spot. Your followers get more valuable up to a certain number of followers (theirs, not yours), then that value decreases at an increasing rate.

My point is that the people who have a steady flow of interesting tweets coming across their screen are going to be much more engaged than the people who barely see any new tweets.

I wish that I could draw a graph of value vs. # of followers to make the explanation simpler.

I also think that people who are followed more than they follow are likely more valuable followers. Maybe you could work that into the metric?