The other campaign: Who’s winning the battle for Twitter?

By Paul Afshar

With over 2.5 million UK users, and millions of daily Tweets, it’s hard to ignore the influence of social media site Twitter on conversation around Election 2010. But what influence will it have on the election campaign?

Using Edelman’s Political TweetLevel tool we’re able to measure and track the influence, trust engagement and popularity of the top 150 politicians, bloggers, candidates and journalists, ranked by their influence on Twitter during the campaign. This is measured on a number of factors including re-tweets, followers, frequency of tweets and references weighted by an algorithm.

But enough about the science and down to the findings.

The battle for influence on Twitter is decisively being won by Labour, a trick the party will no doubt want to emulate in the polls. Labour politicians and candidates are greater in number and by influence in the top 150, with MP for West Bromwich East Tom Watson taking the number 1 spot, beating both Downing Street and the Conservatives. Grant Shapps, the Shadow Housing Minister beats all other Conservative MPs for influence, closely followed by party favourite Eric Pickles.

This blog, LabourList, has grown in influence placing it in the top 15 most influential voices in the Twitter-sphere during the campaign, although Conservative blogger Iain Dale wins the battle of the bloggers, closely followed by Guido Fawkes, Tory Bear and Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome.

However, the perhaps unfairly termed ‘dead tree press journalists’ are not far behind with Evening Standard stalwart Paul Waugh the most influential journalist and the former Observer political editor Gaby Hinsliff and Mirror-man Kevin Maguire making it into the top 50.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, candidates – often being younger and more attuned to web 2.0 than their elected counterparts – have greater influence on the social media forum with Lib Dem councillor and candidate for Reading West Daisy Benson and Paul Smith, Labour’s candidate for Bristol West, the most influential PPCs.

The PM’s wife, Sarah Brown, has seen her influence and popularity on Twitter fall in comparison to her husband, with Downing Street now exceeding Mrs Brown’s 1.1 million followers. And the battle of the Miliband brothers is being won by David who, we’re sure much to the chagrin of his younger brother Ed, wins by influence and popularity.

The UK’s millions of Twitterers look to none other than the former deputy PM turned online activist John Prescott as the most trusted with his Go Fourth battle brother Alastair Campbell taking the tenth spot for influence. And Downing Street will also breathe a sigh of relief with Twitter Tsar Kerry McCarthy topping the ranking for the most engaged Twitterer.

Notable absentees from the top 150 include Harriet Harman, darling of BBC news Nick Robinson and host of Sky’s Prime Ministerial debate Adam Boulton.

Will the battle for votes be won by Twitter? Not this time, but Twitter’s influence on the conversation and its use as a political organising tool cannot be underestimated.