There has been a lot of talk over the last couple of weeks about two Twitter ranking tools, Twitter Grader and Twinfluence. Any tool that measures the effectiveness of a Social Media site for a user is important to serious and casual users alike. The fact that there are now two tools presenting a user’s “ranking” in different ways is an indication of the efforts of Social Media to be taken seriously.

Tools that give an indication of the “influence” of a particular user are of use not only for users seeking authoritative users to follow, but for professional users seeking key “influencers” to work with. I decided to run an experiment with them both to see what actions affect your scores and what don’t and if affecting my scores actually did anything for me other than improve my own sense of self worth.

Twitter Grader and Twinfluence







Twitter Grader bases your score on the number of followers you have, the power of this network of followers, the pace of your updates, the completeness of your profile and “a few other factors.” Twinfluence gives you a slightly more sophisticated scoring, though I have found the system has a lag of about 24 hours. Twinfluence breaks your Twitter ranking into Reach, Velocity, Social Capital & Centralization:

• Reach measures the maximum number of people a particular Twitter could get a message to (basically your followers and their followers). • Velocity measures the average of first order followers and second order followers added on a daily basis since you started your account. • Social Capital measures the value of your followers network, e.g. how many followers do your followers have? • Centralization measures how dependent your reach or ability to influence is on a small number of followers who have a large following. E.g. If the bulk of your network is made up of 10 superstars each with thousands of followers, then you have a very centralized network and it is perceived by Twinfluence to be fragile because if one or more of those superstars stops following you, your reach collapses in direct proportion.

How they compare







The two systems agree on the first factor being measured. Twinfluence’s measure of Reach is the same as Grader’s first two factors - the number of followers you have and the influence of those followers. After this, according to their descriptions they diverge. Grader adds the completeness of your profile, which does not seem to be a factor in your Twinfluence ranking. Grader measures the pace of your updates, Twinfluence doesn’t count that. Grader has a secret sauce, which may well contain some of the elements that Twinfluence is measuring as well.

At this point I can’t say which method I prefer most. Grader has the advantage of presenting a single grade, which makes it easy to see and take in, but I think some of their measures are great (profile completeness?). Twinfluence has some great metrics. I like Social Capital as a measure, but I find the site seems to have a lag that Grader doesn’t.

The experiment

Using these metrics I decided to see if I could affect my own score by trying different strategies. As I already mentioned, simply shotgunning Twitter and following hundreds of people might give you a short term boost in your score, but eventually it will backfire.

Why? Because it speaks directly to Social Capital. If by some chance you manage to attract followers who are highly ranked themselves but provide nothing but a stream of updates about your cat, the state of the coffee in your office and what you are going to eat for lunch, you are going to lose followers, and with them will go their followers and on both systems your ranking will diminish.

Analyzing top Twitter users

Just following the top 10, 20 or 50 Twitter users will lead you to similar problems. Here is an analysis of the top 5 Twitter users who have a score of 100 on grader right now:

• MarsPhoenix - Followers: 36,453 Following: 2 • Hodgman - Followers: 12,306 Following: 40 • wilw - Followers: 19,380 Following: 69 • Dooce - Followers: 17,771 Following: 60 • Timoreilly - Followers: 11,316 Following: 323

See the pattern there? Yes, they all have more followers than they do followees. So getting them to follow you and your adventures in cat training, coffee drinking and lunch eating is highly unlikely.

So how do you go about increasing your score? Well, the answers are really simple:

• Be Passionate: Think about why you want to network in the first place. What is it that you want more of? Search for like-minded individuals and follow them. • Share: Provide useful, timely information to your network. Remember, it also appears on the public timeline (unless you protect your posts), which will attract more followers. • Ask: And you will receive. Post questions, make them relevant of course - not “why is the sky blue?” • Review: Check your network. Do you have spammers in there or people who aren’t contributing? Take them off your list of follows, unless of course they are your family and friends, in which case get them to read this post.

So, why would you care about improving your score? You probably shouldn’t apart from the fun factor. But by following the steps above, what you will find yourself with, in a very short space of time, is an amazing network that you can reach out to. People that you can help and that can help you. People that will provide you with a wealth of information and to whom you can pass along great information.

Let’s face it, with all that is contained on the Internet, it is impossible for one person to monitor everything that is going on, but with a significant number of people reading, watching, listening and most importantly, sharing, it becomes a little easier to obtain the information that is important to you.

At the beginning of this week I had a score of 36/100 on Grader, as of the time of writing my score was 66.

Simon Salt is CEO of marketing communications company the IncSlingers. He writes daily at www.simonsalt.com and weekly at Chris Brogan's parenting blog Dad-O-Matic, and is also an avid Twitter user. He is focused on dragging traditional marketers into Web 2.0 before the arrival of Web 3.0. He loves to help out and volunteers his time and knowledge whenever asked. He is Director of Technology for the Austin Chapter of the AMA and is currently working on a Twitter guide for all users.