Several of the articles I read about Twitter centered around the debate whether the number of followers you have is an indication of how influential you are. Another touched on why Twitter power users are influential and another on how to measure your Twitter influence. And yet another (probably the most interesting) on Twitter’s influence on web design patterns.
In regards to the web design pattern article, I learned that since Twitter’s debut on the internet, it’s been one of the closest followers of the web 2.0 philosophy and how it practically invented the micro-blog. Thought that was an interesting mention since it was one of our blog assignments. Twitter and its design (simpler, more intuitive and summary-based design by having an awesome API inherently increasing its user base) “has gone on to cause a revolution within the designs of other well-established websites”. Many websites admire the trend and try to somewhat mirror it, but no one wants a “copycat” or blatant rip-off, such as Plurk as the article suggests. The author went on to say that “Twitter’s design pattern is so influential (with its big celebrity based clientele) that other sites are feeling a sense of what I would term as “Web Darwinism“: the feeling that if a site doesn’t succumb to the new wave of web interface design, it will be phased out by the superior sites that do.” In regards to the API (Application Programming Interface) mentioned a second ago, Twitter’s API has “taken Twitter from just-another-web-service to an extensible web collaboration interface with large amounts of integration from both users and developers alike to the point where its growth is nearly exponential.” So seeing Twitter’s impact on the internet in this example is “unmistakable”.
In regards to the debate on whether the number of followers you have is an indication of how influential you are, the author of one article gave an example of Robert Pattinson (star of the Twilight movie series with his 245K followers) and that of local city government officials. Even though the scale of the mentioned government officials’ audience may be small and Pattinson’s audience may significantly larger, he thinks Pattinson’s audience are “perhaps less rich” meaning “overall he addresses more people but how hard does he have to try to convince his audience of something?” Also, “consider the quality of the audience”. Pattinson’s being that of teenage girls. Are these teenage girls really friends with Pattinson because they “identify with this person” or that they “enjoys this person’s work”. Either way, it’s not distinguishable on Twitter. You have to follow someone regardless of your reason. So, just because someone has thousands upon thousands of followers, doesn’t necessarily make them more influential in the world.
Another one touched on Twitter Power Users and how they are influential on the internet. The article listed several examples of how these power users are so influential online. A few mentioning are: “72% publish blog posts at least monthly, 70 % comment on blogs, 61% write at least one product review monthly, and 61% comment on news sites”.
And, probably the topic that seemed to pop up more than any other discussed tools on how to measure your twitter influence. Twitter’s influence nowadays is so important and such a big deal that many tools (websites, applications) have been created to measure its influence. Also, in regards to people who may follow your Twitter account, “it’s important to provide value to who follow your tweets”. So that’s where popular tools like Twitalyzer, Tweetleve, and Klout come in, just to name a few. Twitalyzer “provides the most robust analysis of a given Twitter account” although “there are essentially too many metrics and it’s a little overwhelming to manage”. Tweetlevel is more simplistic, according to the author, and it’s free. “All you have to do is enter in a Twitter account, and the algorithm will spit out four key metrics — Influence, Popularity, Engagement and Trust.” With Klout, “It’s easy to find what you are looking for, read the scoring information and the graphical output is awesome”, and it’s also free. The score factor categories with Klout are True Reach, Amplification Score, and Network Score. “The Klout Score is a numerical representation of the size and strength of a person’s sphere of influence on Twitter. ”
So one can begin to see after reading all of these articles how Twitter has infiltrated more aspects our web-based lives than ever before. As one article said we live “in a world where everything continually gets smaller and faster in order to satisfy our increasingly attention-deficit society”, and this kind of web-based service is not going anywhere soon.
http://asymptomatic.net/2010/07/29/2863/twitter-influence
http://edelmandigital.com/2010/06/08/tools-to-measure-your-twitter-influence/
http://jerichotechnology.com/socialmedia/twitter-influence-in-technology-history-part2/
http://thecoffeedesk.com/news/index.php/2009/05/12/twitters-influence-on-web-design-patterns/
Phbalanced808's Blog 
Well my twitter influence is zilch. I liked the Darwinism of other sites being mentioned because it’s true. Myspace is being outdated, even though they have a new feature everytime you sign on, by facebook and twitter. I believe it’s because myspace has always been kind of bulky and awkward with navigation but twitter and facebook are sleek, simple, and easy to use.
I enjoyed how you put a little bio of twitter before you go to the point of everything, helps readers understand more.