Editors Ferial Haffajee [City Press] and Barney Mthombothi [Financial Mail] are among South Africa’s most influential voices on Twitter. This is according to global PR firm, Burson-Marsteller, which has released a list of the top 10 most influential political voices on Twitter in South Africa.
The list was developed as part of a global research study, G20 influencers, that named the 200 most influential political voices on Twitter across the Group of Twenty or G-20 nations.
“South Africa is rated as the 10th largest user of Twitter in the world and the most avid Twitter user on the continent. On a global scale the political landscape has identified Twitter as means to engage the community and shape online debate. Locally, however, political leaders are behind their global counterparts and aren’t as actively engaged on this media,” said Hemant Lala, managing director at Arcay Burson-Marsteller.
The study found that the top political tweeters in South Africa include politicians, journalists, and political analysts, among others. The study found that over a 90-day span these influencers: received an average of 5 916 re-tweets; received an average of 5 489 mentions; and had an average of 28 468 Twitter followers
The 10 most influential Twitter accounts in South Africa are:
- Barney Mthombothi
- Daniel Silke
- Ferial Haffajee
- Helen Zille
- Jacob Zuma
- Lindiwe Mazibuko
- Professor Johathan Jansen
- Ralph Mathekga
- Bobby Godsell
- Zackie Achmat
The list of the top 10 political tweeters was determined using data from Klout (klout.com), the standard for influence. Klout analyses engagement across social networks and creates a Klout Score based on this data to help users understand and unlock their influence. Burson-Marsteller’s global public affairs and digital consultants drew up a list of close to 1 000 people on Twitter who are politically influential in the G-20 nations. Klout then assessed and scored them against its influence metric, set on a scale from 1-100, measuring influence based upon a user’s ability to drive action.
