Labour’s Twitter Tsars and Tsarinas

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

In the second in his series of posts about how Twitter is used in politics, Josh Feldberg has mapped all Labour’s MPs on Twitter, with information on who follows who and who has the most influence in the Twitterscape.

The image here (click to enlarge) shows those networks. The blue circles represent MPs and the arrows show who they are friends with. The bigger the circle, the more followers the MP has; and the closer they are to one another the closer their follower groups.

Josh says:

“The data behind this map shows that the title of Labour ‘Twitter tsar’ should be awarded to Ed Miliband, not Kerry McCarthy. Although Ed Miliband has 21 fewer followers, popularity in social networks is not everything. In the network of MPs he has a higher degree of ‘betweeness centrality‘ – he acts as more of “bridge” between MPs and so has a higher level of potential to spread messages amongst all of them.”

* There are 42 Labour MPs on Twitter.

* Tom Watson is Labour’s most influential individual Twitterer.

* Ed Miliband has the potential to reach the most influential following on Twitter.

* John Prescott is the Twitterer with most followers outside of political circles.

Josh Feldberg blogs about social media and politics at Just Juiced.