Though it’s said time and again that the number followers one has on Twitter really means nothing, be it ours or another’s, it’s a number no one can resist checking on.
With more than 13-million followers worldwide, Lady Gaga, without a doubt is the worldwide Queen of Twitter. It’s interesting, however, to know what’s happening in your own backyard.
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Which South African tweeters are the most followed?
To check this out, one could easily look to sites like Twitaholic, which list the most followed users in a given area. Not all South Africans tag their locations as being in South Africa, however, and others make use of “gain more followers” services, meaning that those lists aren’t always entirely reliable.
Though we can — with a little extra digging tell who truly are the biggest tweeters — as we know “followers” aren’t everything, “engagement” and “influence” is and for that we look to Klout for answers.
Klout, as Mememburn contributor Shawn Graaf explained, is a platform to measure “standard of influence” by using “using over 35 variables of scoring.”
In descending order, from 30th to 1st, here are South Africa’s biggest Tweeters.*
30. Trevor Immelman: 40 945
According to Klout, Immelman who has more than 40 000 followers, actually has a “True Reach” — how many people he influences — of 16 000 users.
A big fan of the pop star, it’s not at all surprising that one of the topics Mdoda, scoring 75, is most influential about is Beyonce.
Scoring 71 overall, it’s harldy surprising that top South African house music producer Black Coffee is most influential about, “House Music”, “Headphones”, and, “Music”.
Scoring the official Nelson Mandela account at 67, Klout finds it to be “regularly recognised as a leader in your industry. When you speak, people listen”.
According to Klout, with a score of 65 Gibbs, beyond being influential about “cricket,” is also influential about “Arsenal” and the “Chicago Bulls.” However with both the Chicago Bulls and the South African rugby team Blue Bulls referred to as “The Bulls,” that’s probably a glitch in Klout.
With an overall score of 71, Klout also finds popular comedian Loyiso Gola to “understand what’s important and what your audience values”.
According to Klout, scoring 57, Duminy is most influential when he tweets about, “cricket,” “sports,” and, “entertainment”.
Scoring 67 overall, comedian Kau, according to Klout, though a “thought-leader” in his industry, elicits the most reactions from his followers when he tweets about “celebrities.”
Like other members of the Springboks, Matfield’s Klout score has been rapidly rising in the run-up to the World Cup and is currently at 65.
With an overall score of 71, television personality Sizwe Dhlomo, according to Klout, is a “thought leader” in his industry.
Scoring 61 overall, Klout, strangely, finds Morkel — a cricketer — to be influential about “beauty.”
With an overall score of 56, Klout — after filtering out spam bots and focusing on those who act on his content — finds Boucher to have a True Reach of more than 20 000 users.
Not a very prolific Twitter user, Klout gives President Zuma an overall score of 61, but is spot on in saying he is “an essential information source in your industry.”
With a score of 71, Klout finds Dlamini to be a “Pundit,” who is “regularly recognised as a leader in your industry”.
According to Klout, with an overall score of 69, Habana doesn’t “just share news, you create the news.”
Scoring 72, Klout finds DJ Euphonik to be a “thought leader in your industry.”
His score steadily and quickly rising since the build-up to the Rugby World Cup, Smit’s overall Klout score currently is 69.
Scoring him at 57, Klout find that “within your area of expertise” top South African cricketer Dale Steyn’s opinion “is second to none.”
One of South Africa’s first politicians to embrace social media, Klout scores Zille at 72, and finds her to be most influential on “South Africa,” “Cape Town,” and “democracy.”
Having dropped from a high of 74 in August of this year, radio DJ Dineo Ranaka currently scores 72 but according to Klout still “generates actions and discussions with nearly every message.”
The mysterious “Pigspotter”, scores 79 on Klout and according to the service is a “Tastemaker” meaning he knows what he likes, and his audience likes it too.
One of South Africa’s most controversial Tweeters Nonhle Thema scores 78 on Klout. If you know of her Twitter reputation it will hardly be surprising that Thema is influential about “money,” “celebrities,” and “lawyers.”
According to Klout, Pienaar, with an overall score of 63 is influential about SA football teams “Pirates” and “Chiefs”. He is apparently also influential about US basketball team, “San Antonio Spurs. Another probable glitch as Pienaar’s teams in the English premier league, Tottenham Hotspurs, is also called “Spurs.”
According to Klout, South Africa’s most infamous parody account “creates quality content that engages a very large audience on a level very few can achieve,” which earns Twitter’s original “Julius Malema” a score of 76.
Scoring 76, according to Klout, beloved South African television personality Bonang Matheba is influential about, “celebrities,” “justice,” “moms,” “business,” “shoes,” “Los Angeles,” “music,” the “New York Times,” and “Bruno Mars.”
Scored at 63, Klout says cricketer “AB de Villiers creates content that is spread throughout their network and drives discussions”.
Thanks to regular engagement with his followers, radio DJ and music producer DJ Fresh scores 81 on Klout, the highest of anyone on this list.
With an overall score of 61, “Graeme Smith creates content that is spread throughout their network and drives discussions,” according to Klout.
Scored at 73 and also a “Though Leader”, according to Klout, “Trevor Noah generates actions and discussions with nearly every message.”
Love him or hate him, the ever controversial shock-jock Gareth Cliff with an overall score of 77 and a rating as a “Thought Leader”, according to Klout, is seen as having “a very large and engaged network through high quality, trustworthy content.”
