Until recently, the most followed people on Twitter were generally the top tech ‘celebrities’ – people you and I know, but the average man or woman on the street would never have heard of! Kevin Rose, Leo Laporte, Veronica Belmont and Scoble etc.
However, this is all starting to change; thanks to the arrival of celebrities and some professional networkers!
Twitter: The celebrities
UK comedian and actor Stephen Fry leads the way. It’s not only that he has over 100,000 followers that’s interesting, it’s that his numbers have doubled in just 12 days! Yes, Kevin Rose has around 100,000 followers too BUT it’s taken him 2 years to get there!
Britney Spears has gained over 20,000 followers in a week. Even UK TV presenter Philip Schofield has attracted 20,000 followers in the past 2 weeks. The tech celebrities can’t compete and are quickly falling down the ‘most followed’ rankings.
Twitter: The networkers
With the exception of Robert Scoble – all the tech celebrities seem to have made a pact. They REFUSE to follow people back unless they know them personally. This is the 180 degree opposite of the approach being used on Twitter right now, by hundreds of professional networkers!
There are legions of professional networkers, spending hours every day; following thousands of people and gaining thousands of follows. These guys are also seeing their follower numbers grow far faster than the tech celebrities too!
The new face of Twitter
If you want to keep up to date with the rapidly changing top 100 Twitter users (based on number of followers) – You can do so at twitterholic.com. It makes for surprisingly interesting viewing!
What’s a Twitter?
the tech “celebrities” are all getting revenge for the suffering they took in high school *shrug* Personally I think they’re all a bunch of pompous arses (arragonton, scoble, calacanis, mcclure, winer, blah blah)
It’s normal that this happens. You can’t beat the exposure you get by being a TV / Movie / music star with a blog / website / etc. I bet you that much more people know who Britney Spears is then who Larry Page and Serghey Brin are, or even Bill Gates maybe?
I’ve seen the same thing happen with blogs. Some TV guy made himself a blog, mentioned it on his show, next day he has almost as much readers as one of the top bloggers who has been swetting for ears to get the audience. I don’t talk about quality, etc, it’s just influence.
You make a great point about ‘influence.’ I also agree about how many more people have heard of Britney than Serghey etc.
The Colonel would like to throw his distinguished hat into the Twitter elite mix as well. However, I am a bit more discerning than other folks — they know who they are — about who I follow.
Well it’s only Twitter, but check out my website. (Click on my name above)
I was amused by it in any case.
Cheers – @liamvickery
Not following a loyal fan is worse than autofollowing unloyal fans.
@JeffreySummers
We all knew this was going to happen, didn’t we? As twitter grows so goes the techiness and in comes the poppyness.
One of your points about the Twitter elite seemed to be a bit of a slam on those that follow just a handful of people while being followed by thousands, what you called, “180 degree opposite of the approach being used on Twitter right now…” My personal thought is that Twitter is a cocktail party, not a podium, so I like to follow back most that follow me. I’m not sure if you are saying this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I couldn’t help but notice that you only follow 55 while being followed by 3,000+. What’s your stance on this?
Hi Matt,
Slam? Nope – I think different people use twitter in different ways, that’s all.
I am not one of those people, who says there’s a right or wrong way to use Twitter. After all, everyone’s free to enjoy it however they like aren’t they?
rt @JamesRivers twitter elite is changing: get the full story here http://tinyurl.com/bn6g66
Also check out TwitterCounter. We don’t only have a global Top 10.000 but also local ones so you can see who is hot in the UK or Belgium…
Hey Boris,
I like (and use) TwitterCounter.com – Nice work!
…and the Dalai-Lama gains more than 10000 followers today! Historical!
I saw a few tweets earlier about this. Has anyone actually validated that it really is him?
RT @MackCollier: RT @Armano: Everyone has issues with “tech celebs” but “professional networkers” go unscathed. LOL. http://is.gd/iNts
RT @Armano This is awesome. Everyone has issues with “tech celebs” but “professional networkers” go unscathed. LOL. http://is.gd/iNts
uai tao dizendo que o twitter caiu mesmo na boca do povo http://tinyurl.com/bn6g66
RT @Armano: This is awesome. Everyone has issues with “tech celebs” but “professional networkers” go unscathed. LOL. http://is.gd/iNts
TWITTER ELITE IS CHANGING… Get the full story here http://tinyurl.com/bn6g66
RT @JamesRivers: TWITTER ELITE IS CHANGING… Get the full story here http://tinyurl.com/bn6g66
RT @JamesRivers TWITTER ELITE IS CHANGING… Get the full story here http://tinyurl.com/bn6g66