Before the Internet, editors compiled power lists using a complex system of favor-trading and slow-news-cycle holidays. Now, it’s done by algorithm! Anyone can indulge their narcissism and quantify their own “influence.” But only one can be on top. Or several.
What’s true for the Internet is true for Twitter: on the Internet, you can make your voice heard, if not necessarily listened to. Are men listened to more than women, as is often the case in previous public discourse? It depends which evidence you choose to read.
According to a recent study by Brian Solis, Klout, and PeopleBrowsr, which looked at the 50,000 most influential Twitter users (using Klout’s algorithm), the difference between male and female users’ influence was not sweeping:
While women represent a greater portion of the overall Twitter population, men edged slightly ahead in terms of Twitter’s top influencers. Yet that power balance shifts when looking at influence across the entire Twitterverse as women hold a higher level of influence within the general Twitter population.
Recently, Twitter Grader helpfully compiled a list of the top 100 female users. Sitting at the very top: a conservative woman named Jan Simpson.
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