If Twitter's Suggested User list is PBS, then the Most Popular list is MySpace

Recap: I'm in the middle of a month-long experiment tracking the Top 500+ Twitter users (based on Followers). I decided to look at the growth rate of these accounts to see what, if anything, it indicated about Twitter culture.

Fastest growing Twitter accounts (5/11/09-5/17/09)

1. Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) 995% SU
2. Jack Gray (@JackGrayCNN) 432% SU
3. Rania Al Abdulah (@QueenRania) 392% SU
4. Moby (@TheLittleIdiot) 372% SU
5. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (@KAJ33) 344% SU
6. Roger Erik Tinch (@CineVegas) 273% SU
7. Bill Simmons (@SportsGuy33) 235% SU
8. Next to Normal (@N2NBroadway) 192% SU
9. Michael Ausiello (@EWAusielloFiles)141% SU
10. John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) 121% SU
11. White House (@WhiteHouse) 104% SU
12. Life.Com (@Life) 76% SU
13. Counting Crows (@CountingCrows) 75% SU
14. Wyclef Jean (@Wyclef) 71% SU
15. Roc4Life (@Roc4Life) 71% SU
16. Health Magazine (@GoodHealth) 70% SU
17. Joel Stein (@TheJoelStein) 67% SU
18. ExecTweets (@ExecTweets) 61% SU
19. Gov. Schwarzengger (@Schwarzenegger) 61% SU
20. Justin Timberlake (@JTimberlake) 56%

SU=Twitter's Sugested User

Once again we see the overwhelming dominance of the Twitter's list of 223 Suggested Users in influencing the fastest growing accounts on Twitter. And it seems to be growing. On the 4/26 and 5/3 lists, 85% of the Top 20 were SUs while on the 5/10 and 5/17 lists, it's grown to be 95% of the list. 

If you're interested in reading more about the influence being on the Suggested User list has upon popularity on Twitter, Ben Lorica did a more focused analysis and wrote it up on the O'Reilly Radar blog: Being a Suggested User Leads to Thousands of Twitter Followers.

Now on to the list of the fastest growing Twitter accounts that don't benefit from this extra publicity:

Fastest organically growing Twitter accounts (5/11/09-5/17/09):

1. Justin Timberlake (@JTimberlake) 56%
2. Pink (@Pink) 40%
3. Lauren Conrad (@LaurenConrad) 39%
4. Katie Price Jordan (@MissKatiePrice) 38%
5. Paris Hilton (@BabyGirlParis) 34%
6. Emily Osment (@EmilyOsment) 30%
7. Mark Cuban (@MCuban) 26%
8. Stephanie Pratt (@StephaniePratt) 25%
9. Rev. Run (@RevRunWisdom) 23%
10. Jordin Sparks (@TheRealJordin) 22%
11. Brody Jenner (@BrodyJenner) 22%
12. Drizzy Drake (@Drakkardnoir) 21%
13. Trey Songz (@SongzYuuup) 21%
14. Matthew Perry (@LangfordPerry) 20%
15. Russell Simmons (@UncleRush) 20%
16. Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) 20%
17. Adam Sandler (@AdamSandler) 19% (faux account)
18. Khloe Kardashian (@KhloeKardashian) 18%
19. Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) 18%
20. Keri Hilson (@MissKeriBaby) 17%

There are a lot of the same user accounts as in last week's alternate Top 20 list, mostly pop culture TV/Movie/Music/Reality show celebrities. It is clear that this list is composed of more women, more African-Americans and younger personalities than the Suggested Users list which has more politicians, journalists, sports personalities and media outlets, all of which are absent from the popular list. If Twitter's Suggested User list is like PBS, then the popular list is like MySpace.

And, as noted last week in general in the Top 500+ accounts, growth in Follower numbers is slowing down considerably. Like last week, 74% of the top accounts had a weekly growth rate of 10% or lower with 3.4% of that being 0 or negative growth. The median rate of growth rose slightly from 7.01% (5/10) to 7.11% (5/17).

Note: I should mention that there were some fast-rising names on this week's Top 500+ list that I couldn't include in my calculations because Twitterholic & TwitterCounter had only started tracking these accounts last week so no comparison was possible. Several of these names would probably have had a place on the popular list and they include accounts of Adrienne Bailon (@Adrienne_Bailon), Lindsay Lohan (@LiDLo) (faux account), Katt Williams (@KattPackAllDay), DJ Drama (@DJDrama), Dwight Howard (@DwightHoward), and Busta Rhymes (@BusaBusss).

Later this week, I hope to write a blog entry on the increase of African-American artists into the ranks of top users of Twitter.