Hot Twitterers: A Different View

Yesterday I posted a blog entry about last week's fastest growing Twitter accounts pulled from the Top 500+ Twitter users (by Follower numbers). It was obvious how dominated the list was by accounts recommended via Twitter's Suggested User option, a tool which offers new users suggestions about people/groups they might follow. 

I thought I'd weed out all of those accounts which had gotten the equivalent of a unpaid boost and see which accounts were growing organically at the fastest pace. This list paints quite a different picture of the current swing of popularity on this social network:

Fastest organically growing Twitter accounts (4/26/09-5/3/09):

1. Matthew Perry (@LangfordPerry) 1002%
2. Russell Simmons (@UncleRush) 135%
3. Lauren Conrad (was @LCLaurenConrad, now @LaurenConrad) 133%
4. Paris Hilton (@BabyGirlParis) 94%
5. Timbaland (@Timbaland) 63%
6. Brody Jenner (@BrodyJenner) 52%
7. Steve Buscemi (@Steve_Buscemi) 52%
8. Terrence J (@TerrenceJ106) 49%
9. Trey Songz (@SongzYuuup) 48%
10. Lauren London (@MsLaurenLondon) 44%
11. Eminem (@Eminem) 44%
12. Seth Rogen (@Seth_Rogen) 39%
13. Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) 39%
14. Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) 38%
15. Chis Brown (@FreeChrisBrown) 35% (Probably faux account)
16. Keri Hilson (@MissKeriBaby) 31%
17. Lil Wayne (@WeezyOfficial) 31%
18. Rafinha Bastos (@RafinhaBastos) 31%
19. Rachel Bilson (@Rachel_Bilson) 30%
20. Taylor Swift (@TaySwift) 30% (Another faux account)

Once you take out the Twitter staff's favorites, the hot accounts have a completely different focus. Rather being composed of journalists, charities, established artists & tech companies, you have a mix of comedians, musicians, rappers, off-beat artists, and reality show celebrities. Plus a few people I have absolutely no idea what they do because their bios provide very little information on them.

It's hard not to notice how much more diverse this list is with much more African-American representation. Although a recent report by Comscore highlights the fact that the demographics of Twitter are growing in the 45-54 year old range, what & who is hot at Twitter, when not influenced by Twitter Suggested Users, definitely skews more towards urban pop (TV & music) culture rather than mainstream Hollywood or Bay Area tech scenes, the blogosphere or the marketplace.

An odd thing to note is how @Timbaland's account is growing despite the fact he has not posted a Tweet since 9/9/07 and how @Rachel_Bilson has yet to post a single Tweet! Yet, she has over 45K people who want to follow her once she starts Tweeting. 

There is a significant segment of Twitter users who are actively seeking out celebrities they want to hear from, regardless of whether they are currently active or whether their account might be actually written by an imposter (there are several Taylor Swift accounts & I doubt Chris Brown is writing @FreeChrisBrown!).

Again, these are accounts pulled from the largest Twitter accounts as indicated by Twitter, Twitter Counter, Twitterholic & WeFollow. In a small poll we ran, the bulk of Twitter users focus on their immediate network of friends rather than these larger, celebrity users. 

Still, tracking this data allows us to see some changing trends on Twitter as the Top Users change from tech/VC guys to bloggers to social media consultants to Internet marketers and now to musicians & reality show celebrities.