Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Twitter Wars

Whose winning the Twitter War? Who has the most followers? Whose every word are we hanging on too? I have been in a top 10 mood so here are the Top 10 Figure Skaters (by followers at time of posting) on Twitter:

#10 Jeremy Abbott (@jeremyabbottpcf) - 9,980

#9 Tanith Belbin (@TanithJLB) - 10,641

#8 Patrick Chan (@PChiddy) - 10,947

#7 Mirai Nagasu (@mirai_nagasu) - 11,644

#6 Evgeny Plushenko (@Evgeniplushenko) - 11,947

#5 Kristi Yamaguchi (@kristiyamaguchi) - 15,356

#4 Joannie Rochette (@JoannieRochette) - 18,698

#3 Evan Lysacek (@EvanLysacek) - 59,069

#2 Johnny Weir (@JohnnyGWeir) - 70,024

#1 Kim Yu-Na (@Yunaaaa) - 266,581

So my thoughts...

Pro vs Amateur - As far as skating goes, Twitter is dominated by eligible skaters with Kristi Yamaguchi being the only established professional/veteran in the group. Kurt Browning, Scott Hamilton, and Brian Boitano did have followers in the thousands ranging from 5,072 to 7,484.

Johnny vs Evan - Johnny, despite not winning an Olympic Medal and a stint on Dancing with the Stars, has about 10,000 followers more than his arch nemesis (strong words?) Evan Lysacek. A credit to Johnny's inherent ability to simply create buzz and media sparkle. He seems perfect for Social Media.

Singles Club - All but one of the top 10 are singles skaters. Tanith Belbin is the only paired skater to break through. She must have done something right! And that begs the question...why is Tanith so much more popular than Ben and his 4,034 followers?

Vancouver was the Twitter Olympics - All the top 10 with the exception of Yamaguchi competed in Vancouver.

Boys vs Girls - Doesn't seem to be any gender bias on Twitter...5 boys and 5 girls make up the top 10. #equality

10,000 Threshold - Poor Jeremy Abbott is on the only skater in the top 10 not above 10,000 followers...can we get him there. Prove that Pigs Can Fly, follow Jeremy on Twitter! UPDATE: We ran a little Twitter campaign an voila...Jeremy is now above 10,000. Now he's going for 20,000...look out Joannie Rochette!

Popular! - Mirai Nagasu's appearance on this list suprises me. She came to Twitter a bit later than a lot of the top skaters yet has garnered quite a following in a short period of time. I love the 2008 National Champ and reigning U.S. Silver medalist...and apparently so do all of you!

Flag Representation - Twitter's top figure skaters are largely North American. 60% are American, 20% Canadian, and 10% each for Russia and S. Korea. Question...where's Japan?

The Queen - S. Korea's Kim Yu-Na really is the Queen. 266,581 followers and climbing. She destroys the rest of the Twitter competition!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am actually surpised that Johnny Weir does not have more followers. Since he has his own TV show, I thought he would at least top 100,000 followers.

Unknown said...

In a very different way, I think Mirai's popularity comes from the same ability to create "media sparkle" (as you so perfectly coined it!) as Johnny Weir. She speaks what's on her mind with very little filtering sometimes and she charms crowds with her real-ness. I adore her!

(Oh, and way to go Kristi for breaking through for the pros!)

Gigi said...

Almost all of the Japanese skaters tend to avoid social networking, I think xD
<3 Ah well..it's kind of endearing in a way.

Anonymous said...

Tanith is popular because she's hot. No other reason.

Anonymous said...

Yuna has the most followers yet she's the one the least amount of tweets :(

physics girl said...

Have to agree about Tanith, perhaps it has something to do with the slinky dress she is wearing on her twitter page.

I perused some of the twitter pages and found them uninspiring. Why is twitter so popular?

Motorcycle Parts said...

She speaks what's on his mind with little filtering and sometimes she seduces the audience with his real-ness. I love it!

Anonymous said...

It's nice of Yuna to use Twitter for helping the needy. She once mentioned Pakistan Flood in the twitter, and her fans made lots of donation to UNICEF. How cool! I'm so glad a celebrity like Yuna makes the best of Twitter & her influence. Queen Yuna is just adorable!