What's your Twitter Popularity Index? (TPI)

So in blogging we have the conversational index (CI) thanks to Stowe Boyd, which is the ratio of comments per post, indicating the level of interactivity and dialogue on a blog.

What got me thinking about the Twitter Popularity Index (TPI), my newly conceived and totally useless Twitter equivalent, was looking at tech journalist rockstars like Jemima Kiss and Bobbie Johnson (come on the Brighton massive!) and geek lords like Dave Winer, and noting the glaring difference between how many people they follow (e.g. Bobbie Johnson - 34) and how many followers they have (Bobbie - 243).

Bobbie Johnson - 243 / 34  = 7.1
Jemima Kiss - 172 / 57 = 3
Dave Winer - 3,276 / 284 = 11

Of course, you've got the odd wildcard in there, like super-influencer Scoble who democratizes things by following you if you follow him (bless).

Scobleizer - 6938 / 7575 = 1.09

And also of course, you can manipulate, to a degree, your TPI by following as few people as possible. So it's deeply flawed, this TPI thing, as well as being totally useless.

A further flaw (more?!) is that good ol' Flemming Madsen would say 'it's not how many people that follow you - it's WHO follows you and how influential THEY are'. And he's right dammit.

But it's still interesting to me, this Twitter Popularity Index (TPI).

Excellent. Better go to bed now.

Comments

[Paul Fabretti]

Love it - onyl because I am at 1.49.

Makes me feel only slightly less of a loser....

[Will McInnes]

I'm happy for you Paul!