Twitter Grader: Are YOu Elite?
What’s your Twitter Grade? Mine is 94. That’s up from 87 a few days ago.
Some folks really find this fascinating. To me, it’s just plain fun. Twitter is all about having a good time and keeping up with your friends. But the grade measures your “influence,” or so it says at Mashable.
So, what can you do to become part of the Twitter Elite? (the top Tweeple in the Twitterverse)
According to Simon Salt over at Mashable, it’s a matter of 4 things:
- Reach or how many people see your message. Today, I have 415. Seems like a lot to some, but it’s really not that many. I know people who have thousands.
- Velocity or how quickly people follow you (I think. There’s some crazy terminology there that doesn’t quite click for me: “Velocity measures the average of first order followers and second order followers added on a daily basis since you started your account.” So, yeah… Whatever that means.
- Social Capital or how important are your followers? Hmm… I have some cool ones that started way back when Twitter was only chirping, like Alex Mandossian, John Reese, Andy Jenkins, Ed Dale, and a whole bunch of other people. Yes, Tellman, too, but he’s really not a big on Twitter. Too busy. So, all these folks with much bigger follower lists help.
- Centralization, which also has to do with your followers. A small following with several big names isn’t as valuable as a very large following with fewer big names by percentage. It hurts those small, big name lists more when one of the big names bails out. (I think.)
Its hard to understand what all that stuff means, but to me, it just means follow tons of people!
Edward Moore, who’s becoming quite the Twitter expert, showed me the benefit (and ethics) of following everyone who follows me. To me, it was ACK! I just don’t have the time to listen to 400 people all Tweeting at the same time. However, it’s only polite, as Edward pointed out. (And of course, he’s right.) And you get more followers by doing that. People look at other people’s follow lists to see who they want to follow, right?
He also gave me a tool to make it easier: Tweet Deck, which you can pick up at http://TweetDeck.com. It helps to separate out lists of people you want to hear from all day, and people you want to hear from when you have more time. Of course, you want to hear from all of them! But if I just Twittered around all day, I’d never get my work done and I’d get fired! 
Know what? Forget all that grading stuff. Who cares? Have fun. Enjoy the camaraderie that you don’t normally get sitting alone typing away, and just Tweet as it suits you.
Trying to keep up with the Twitter Elite is just too much to bear.
Erin H.
October 24th, 2008 at 3:39 pm #
Great info! I’m new to twitter, and this is all really helpful information. You’re right about it being just for fun, but being “Twitter Elite” is a great goal to have. And, it’s true about following people who follow you. It may seem like a lot to handle at first, but it gets really interesting!
Kathy
October 27th, 2008 at 9:26 pm #
I get very frustrated with these kinds of rating systems. I think I’m a good writer, but I totally lose enjoyment of it when I start worrying too much about too many aspects, like being rated or SEO stuff. And seriously, where do people find all the time to do social bookmarking and get their stuff out there! I am beyond frustrated but glad to see that someone who publishes regularly gets tired of the whole rating thing as much as I do!
Share
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:54 am #
Wow. For one day at least I made it to twitter elite. Don’t know if it will last for long… but it’s good for now!
Follow me, please! I will follow you back.
twitter.com/rocknrolltv (the rocker personality)
twitter.com/shareross (the raw vegan healthy side of me)
Thanks for the great post!
Simon Salt
November 9th, 2008 at 10:33 pm #
Just thought I would mention, those aren’t my four things to do to become Twitter elite. Those are the measures used by Twinfluence a tool created by Guy Hagan. I agree with you about Twitter being fun and that the grading tools can remove the fun, but only if you let them. The main gain from these tools for the individual user is that it helps you understand how to contribute and engage more with people on Twitter. If you really read the tools you will see that is the key to improving your score, which becomes a by-product of providing an engaging time for people who follow you.
Regards
Simon