Taylor Swift has been named the most influential person on Twitter this year, despite only tweeting 13 times. Social media analysis company Brandwatch released its annual list of the top 10 most influential women and top 10 most influential men on Twitter, and with an “influencer score” of 98 points out of a possible 100, Swift is the outright winner.
Topping the list of most influential men, and playing second fiddle to Swift, is a former member of One Direction band member turned solo artist Liam Payne with 97 points. Payne was closely followed by Donald Trump, Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian West and Demi Lovato, all of whom scored 96 points.
The list was compiled based on a range of Twitter metrics, but the methodology primarily focused on how much genuine engagement the individual accounts were creating. “While lots of followers, retweets and replies will help, the more influential the people they engage with, the better the score,” said Gemma Joyce, a data journalist for Brandwatch in a blog post.
Cnet reports that despite being considered “influential”, some of the celebs on the list don’t even seem that into Twitter. “Justin Bieber, who’s been a constant on the top 10 list for the last three years, rarely uses Twitter and yet he’s able to generate a huge amount of engagement,” said Joyce.
Likewise, Swift has only tweeted 13 times in 2018 (not including retweets) and ceased posting on the service altogether back in June.
It just goes to show that if you want to be influential on Twitter, less can be more. It probably also helps to be famous (musicians, in particular, dominated both lists). Here are the top five Twitter users in each category, with the top 10 available at Brandwatch.
Top 5 most influential women on Twitter in 2018
- Taylor Swift
- Katy Perry
- Kim Kardashian West
- Demi Lovato
- Ellen Degeneres
Top 5 most influential men on Twitter in 2018
- Liam Payne
- Donald Trump
- Justin Bieber
- Barack Obama
- Cristiano Ronaldo
