February 2018: the 10 most influent researchers in Twitter

Here you have the ranking of the 10 most prominent market researchers, on an international level, in Twitter. Data corresponds to February 2018. Only a few changes ara appreciated in comparison to the month of January.

In order to measure the influence we have resorted to social network analysis (SNA), a technique that allows us to know how Twitter participants interact. Influencers have lots of interpersonal ties: this is why SNA becomes the proper tool to analyse the conversations that take place on the social media. Please, follow this link if you want to know the methodology through which we have built this ranking.

February has opened the doors to four new influencers: Richard Shotton, who obtained a high level of buzz with his favourite #mrx quote (“Consumers don’t think how they feel. They don’t say what they think and they don’t do what they say“, an expression coined by David Ogilvy); JD Deitch, Chief Rev Officer at P2Sample; Tom De Ruyck, president of the Belgian association BAQMaR; and, finally, Zoe Dowling, Lead Research Strategist at FocusVision.

1. Annie Pettit (@lovestats), Canada. PhD (IO Psych) FMRIA | #Surveys #Panel #DataQuality #MRX | Writer Instructor Speaker Consultant | Canadian Chair ISO/TC225 | Dessert Ukulele
2. Ray Poynter (@raypoynter), Nottingham. CEO of The Future Place, Founder #NewMR, author of The Handbook of Mobile Market Research & The Handbook of Online & Social Media
3. Richard Shotton, (@rshotton), London. Interested in how social psychology & behavioural science can be applied to advertising. Author of The Choice Factory.
4. Betty Adamou, (@bettyadamou), Ipswich. Design, write & lecture on Games for engagement, research data & insight. Founder @RTG_Ltd “1/7 women shaping the future of research” Inventor of ResearchGames™
5. Kristin Luck (@kristinluck), Oregon. Serial entrepreneur turned biz advisor & growth strategist. Marketing measurement/data monetization ninja. Rabid Oregonian. Passion project: @womeninresearch
6. Leonard Murphy (@lennyism), Atlanta. Thinker, Doer, Leader, Advisor, Investor. Insight innovation junkie. Dad to 5 and proud uber-geek.
7. JD Deitch (@jddeitch), Paris. Chief Rev Officer P2Sample. We find the people whose behavior shapes tomorrow’s products.
8. Melanie Courtright (@melcourtright), Seer. Doer. Changer. Leader. Challenger. Participant advocate. Always content personally. Rarely content professionally. Happy. Having a blast. Research Now.
9. Tom De Ruyck (@tomderuyck), Belgium. Partner @InSites | Creating Consumer-Centric Thinking, Future Proof Orgs | Keynote Speaker | Author | Prof @IESEG | President @BAQMaR | Investor @SpeakersBaseHQ
10. Zoe Dowling (@zoedowling), Los Angeles. Nurturing the marriage of research & technology. Lead Research Strategist @FocusVisionInfo. Partial to a long walk. (views are my own)

The 10 most influential researchers in Twitter and their interactions. February 2018. Gephi.

IIeX Europe 2018, driver of the conversation

This ranking, carried out by Empirica, shows that 7 of the 10 main influencers belong to the same digital neighborhood. This one is characterised by a focus on topical issues and new trends on the market research ecosystem, and shows, after the second release of this ranking, certain signs of stability over time.

Annie Pettit, Ray Poynter, Leonard Murphy, Melanie Courtright and Tom de Ruyck are its main exponents. This month, the Insight Innovation eXchange Europe 2018 (IIeX Europe) has structured most of the neighborhood’s messages. Besides, the issue about the role of women in the market research industry has also been a protagonist, mainly due to the push that Kristin Luck, founder of Women in Research, has given to the debate.

Another outstanding community, within the network, very tied to the first one, is related to the conversation put forward by the most influent associations and publications on Twitter: Greenbook, ESOMAR, Quirk’s, the Market Research Society, Insights Association…

Finally, Richard Shotton appears in the ranking because of a very particular tweet. The impact of which spreaded beyond the market research boundaries. That is why its node finds itself at a considerable distance vis-à-vis the rest of the influencers.

The more I tweet, the more influential will I be?

Definitely not. Being active on the social media is not a sufficient condition, though necessary, to become an influencer. Actually, February data shows that the correlation betweent the activity level (outdegree) and influence level (indegree), despite being positive, presents a really low value (R²=0,085).

We would like to thank Lorenzo Brusattin for his support.