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   Salford's Twitter winners and losersby Tom Rodgers
There's an online marketing agency in Trafford called TheEWord, and these clever chaps deal with all sorts of internet know-how, social networking and SEO. They've produced a guide to the best accounts on Twitter in Manchester and Salford, and there's quite a few: the report reads "according to Twitter directory Twellow there are 24,716 Twitter accounts based in Manchester. This makes it the second largest city in the UK for Twitter users." Twitter has exploded onto the mainstream in the past couple of years; now with 100 million users, Twitter's own blog notes that by February this year, the number of tweets per day was edging towards 50 million. Originally considered a poor cousin to Facebook, the use of the 140 character update has the power to make or break businesses. Getting a leg-up on building your brand has never been easier. SalfordOnline itself has already broken 1,000 tweets and currently has 388 [edit, 390] [edit, 394] followers. And so to the report. Eight main Northwest sectors were highlighted in the report: Nightlife; Leisure Services; Business; Retail; Organisations; Not for Profit; Culture; News and Media. It recognizes two types of Twitter messages or "tweets": Broadcast, which are the tweets sent to all followers, and Interactive, which are tweets aimed at individuals. Each account was rated on three main terms: Engagement, Popularity and Involvement, or the number of other members an account is following. All of the scores were arrived at by way of a tricky-looking algorithm. Rather than go into detail here, you're probably better reading the report if you want the details. I personally failed GSCE Maths, so I won't be much help. Anyway, the report started as a week-long project for the EWord and morphed into a 6 month investigation of the science behind social networking. Author of the report, TheEWord's Tom Mason, said: "The benefits of Twitter are in establishing and furthering your brand are not just about content uploading, it's about reacting to what that content does and how people engage with and talk about that content. "There are various events around Manchester like Social Media Cafe and Twestival which have come solely out of regional Twitter use, and which allow people to meet friends and contacts who they might not otherwise have met, and I think that interactivity is one of the most important aspects of Twitter." He added: "The algorithm is weighted more heavily towards the engagement and interactivity element because as a business we're very interested in the use of this social network for discussions around mutually interesting things." If your business has a Twitter account, do you use it to chat to other members or friends, to announce new product lines or events, or both? "While engaging the customer on off-topic matters is important, posting relevant tweets attracts more followers interested in a particular service," says the report. So, just as with Google, it seems it's all about the keywords. But there's more. A lot more. Out of 25,000 accounts, we decided to condense the (considerable) findings into a handy guide to Salford's best Twitterers - or if you follow the Prime Minister's terminology, Tw*ts. In terms of who didn't make it, none of Salford's news providers were covered in the report, (follow us @SalfordOnline, follow the Salford Star @salfordstar and follow the Salford Advertiser @salfordnews), however, a follow up is planned by the Trafford Park consultancy, and we're gunning to be involved. No public service providers were covered in the final report, for example @NHSSalford, or any of the Salford Councillors who hold and update Twitter accounts. This could make an interesting follow-up for the consultancy, especially considering the Formality rating: "the mix of informal, conversational-style updates with formal tweets" and the trouble that Salford Councillor John Warmisham got into over his personal messages to his partner accidentally going out to his followers (that even made the front page of the paper version of the Manchester Evening News). Tom Mason hinted that more reports of this kind would be available in future, but for now, the E Word is sitting back and reflecting on the reception this report has received. Of the Salford-based businesses and companies that made it into the report, @SalfordUni got the most press. It took third spot across Manchester in the Organisations sector, and was the top-rated Institution. This will come as no surprise to regular Twitterers as the University was an early-adopter on Twitter and has a vast amount of news and events to post. Jamie Brown, press officer at the University, told us today: "We established our Twitter service as a natural complement to our communications activity. We have a lot of research, events and announcements which are of interest to a wide range of people, and this is an effective way of reaching them. “It’s also very important for us to talk to our students – we were in touch with lots of them when snow forced us to close earlier in the year and they regularly contact us for information. Sometimes people don’t realise how much activity goes on at a university like Salford, so Twitter is a great way of letting them know.” In the Business section, Salford solicitors Ralli (@RalliSolicitors) bagged third place, scoring highly on the Engagement rating. The Lowry Outlet Mall on Salford Quays takes fourth place in the best Retail accounts in Greater Manchester, scoring well in their use of "targeted marketing". In terms of News and Media, the MediaCityUKBlog, who occasionally contribute to our pages, was rated the best Twitter account in Manchester. It beat, well, us, for a start, along with the Manchester Evening News Newsdesk (@MENnewsdesk) rock radio station @XFMManchester, and Northwest media giant How-do.co.uk (@howdomedia). The report praises @MediaCityUK for being "more willing to retweet updates from third parties and converse with others, arguably creating a more well-rounded experience for the user, while still fulfilling its remit as a news source." Surprisingly, the News and Media accounts were found at the bottom of the overall sector rank of the report; one would have thought it would be news organisations who would be using Twitter to its full potential, rather than nightclub and bar promoters, who came top in the overall sector rank. Michael Tabner, author and editor of the MediaCityUK Blog, was "pleasantly surprised" to see his unofficial blog top the rankings: "When I started using Twitter to keep readers up to date with the latest MediaCity news I had no idea so many people would be interested, but I've always been able (and happy) to engage with other twitterers, re-tweet interesting stuff and generally treat Twitter as one big conversation about MediaCity. "I think News and Media accounts in general score poorly because they find it difficult to engage. It's very easy for things to be taken out of context on Twitter, and if you're the official voice of a respected news organisation you can't really be joking about, taking sides or retweeting your competitors stories. But many people who work at such organisations have personal accounts which are much more engaging!" So, it seems that the conclusions of the report are focused in the areas of user engagement; Twitter should be used not only as a tool for promoting content on your website, but also as a vehicle for engaging directly with customers, forwarding interesting links to followers and generally using the social media service to have conversations. For Twitter newbies, the following recommendations are made: - Know when to tweet, as those accounts which contribute regularly throughout the day are most popular - Stay professional, but be personable: the human face of a company is far easier for followers to interact with - Post relevant links, as this will show your willingness to engage with your followers and not just to contstantly self-promote and crucially, - Know your goal: who are you trying to appeal to with your tweets? The full report is available from the link below, and contains all sorts of colourful data analysis to satisfy the social media obsessives among us.
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