I'm A Twitter Influencer? Huh?
5 April 2012
Jacob Jegher
Yesterday, I was informed by Obopay that they have ranked me in their top 10 Twitter influencers in North America. Before I pat myself on the back, and get you to congratulate me, I'd like you all to consider what this really means. I'd like to thank Obopay for the accolade, but the answer is it means nothing. There are all kinds of fun ways to measure social "influence." The most popular one is Klout, and Obopay uses the Klout score in its methodology. Klout's got a convoluted mechanism of gauging your so called influence. I'm just an occasional tweeter, and my interactions are what contribute to my score. If I spent my entire day tweeting out news and links, who knows, maybe I'd reach #1 on the Obopay list! These scores are easily gamed, and don't measure an individual's true interactions or influence. Plus, Obopay's list is incomplete as I can easily identify several individuals from Celent and other firms that aren't even listed. I could go on with this but I have to get back to the report I am writing. What an analyst does on Twitter represents only a fraction of their role and potential to influence. Would you make a business decision based on my Klout score or Obopay influencer rank? I hope not.