Tom Tops in Twits Two

Some interesting feedback and comments on our first Birmingham’s Biggest Tweeters post.

Birmingham’s Biggest Tweeters

There are a number of tools around for calculating the popularity and impact of particular twitter feeds. As a consultancy interested in helping clients to influence and engage – rather than simply promote – we were struck by TweetLevel which has been developed by Edelman, a leading PR agency (one day, people will use tools developed by Urban but we’ll live with drawing on the greater resources of more established agencies for now!).

Urban’s latest musings

• The Big Debate: Opening Up: Urban MD Kevin Johnson reflects on The Big Debate and suggests Birmingham chances of being seen as a creative capital will increase if we open up a little.
• A Tale for Two Cities: Urban director Tim shares his views following a recent visit to Birmingham’s so called  rival city, Manchester.
• Who should have the hand on the purse strings: Urban director Tim shares his thoughts on why many schools in the UK are experiencing financial woes.

Identifying Influential Influencers

The Guardian and The Observer have published research exploring ‘Word of Mouth’ and how to distinguish the influentials from the not so influentials. As a result of this research, a quick checklist – ACTIVE – has been created with which researchers suggest an individual’s potential buzz factor can be predicted.

• Ahead in Adoption does not necessarily mean being at the edge of discovery, but ahead of the mainstream.
• Connected means having lots of connections, but important that there is a range of them.
• Traveller means having more frequent contact with other countries, their people and most importantly their ideas and perspectives.
• Information hungry people who always want to learn more, constantly seeking out and exchanging new facts and ideas.
• Being Vocal does not necessarily mean loud and dominant; but keen to discuss thoughts and share information and experiences.
• Exposed to Media refers to people who are voracious consumers of mass media, particularly print or the internet.

Applying this concept to the online landscape, this checklist could help in the process of identifying the influencers and thought leaders in the blogosphere and twitterverse.