Twitter, Tharoor and Gul
By Techgirl

Till April, 2010, the Indian Foreign Ministry was lead by two men who have much in common.  The senior Foreign Minister SM Krishna, like his junior Minister Shashi Tharoor, was educated in the USA. Krishna was a Fulbright scholar while his deputy Tharoor was awarded a PhD at only 22 years of age.

Both are good looking, dapper dressers and eloquent speakers.  Both are naturals while performing for the media.

Both joined Twitter. And that’s where the generation gap showed. While Shashi Tharoor has amassed more than 800,000 Twitter followers and Tweets regularly, SM Krishna’s Twitter account has been lying dormant since April, 2009.

While a Minister, Shashi used to follow SM Krishna on Twitter.  But after his controversial resignation in April, 2010, Tharoor did some house keeping on his Twitter account and stopped following Krishna.

On Dec 17, 2009, I had Twitalyzed Shashi’s Twitter account and found that of the 5 key Twitter influencers on Shashi Tharoor, 3 were powerful, successful women.  These women include highly regarded journalist Barkha Dutt, Tech super executive Padmasree and Delhi based super blogger Twilight Fairy.

So, what does software Twitalyzer have to say about Shashi Tharoor’s Twitter account in May, 2010? According to Twitalyzer, hottie actress and activist Gul Panag is now the main influencer on Shashi Tharoor.  According to this Twitalyzer report, Gul Panag has 41.8 % ‘Influence’ on Shashi Tharoor.  Or is it the other way around?  Among the men, Nitin Pai, who edits Pragati, has the most influence calculated at 18.2 %.  From the December list, highly regarded Barkha Dutt and tech super executive Padmasree have dropped out and seem to have minimum Twitter contact with Shashi.

Twitalyzer defines Influence as “the likelihood that a Twitter user will either A) retweet something the user has written or B) reference the user. While this definition is similar to clout, influence takes both retweets and references into account, whereas clout only looks at references.”

They say a week is a long time in politics.  It seems to sometimes hold true for Twitter influencers as well.

(Techgoss had published the following on Dec 17, 2009)

Shashi Tharoor Analyzed
By Techgirl

Twitter, on its official website, describes Indian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Shashi Tharoor, as one of its ‘Advocates’ in India.  Shashi Tharoor on his Twitter account describes himself as author, humanitarian, peacekeeper, columnist, former UN Under-Secretary General, now Minister of State for External Affairs, Govt of India.  To his credit, more than 500 thousand Twitter users follow Shashi’s Tweets. Shashi’s tweets are intelligent and engaging although he does not mind in using them to promote himself. 

Web Analytics Demystified, Inc. is one the world's premier consulting firm for web and digital analytics strategy. Its statistics are regularly quoted in New York Times, Cnet, Wall Street Journal, CNN and PBS.

Web Analytics Demystified runs software platform Twitalyzer which Twitterers use to  ‘track their use of Twitter over time, benchmarking themselves against other Twitter users, and helping to determine which social media strategies are working (and which are not.)’.  Twitalyzer is currently tracking about 350 thousand Twitterers.

If Web Analytics Demystified tool Twitalyzer is to be believed even though Shashi Tharoor’s followers have increased to 500 thousand, his overall influence has decreased by more than 10 percent.

On Dec 16, I used Twitalyzer to analyze Shashi Tharoor’s account.  The results (screen shot above) can be seen at this link.

According to Twitalyzer, of the 5 key Twitter influencers on Shashi Tharoor, 3 are powerful, successful women.  These women include highly regarded journalist Barkha Dutt, Tech super executive Padmasree and Delhi based super blogger Twilight Fairy.

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com