Bivings, Newspaper Study
Dec 17, 2009
Allen Rindfuss
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Ranking the Twitter IQ of Newspapers

In our newspaper study, released earlier today, we developed a formula we call the Twitter Interactivity Quotient (or Twitter IQ for short) as a way of measuring how newspapers were using their accounts.   If tweeting, which consists of original tweets, responses to tweets, and retweeting others’ tweets, is viewed as a conversation, then the tweeting is effectively “talking”, while responses and retweets are evidence of “listening”. And, while not every conversation is equally balanced for a variety of good reasons, it seems reasonable to propose that the best conversationalists are those who cultivate balance over time.

Working off that premise, we combined the percentage of replies and retweets (listening) and subtracted it from 50 percent (a perfect balance). We then subtracted that number from 100% and translated it into a real number between .5 and 1.5, establishing “1” as the ideal balance. Accounts registering a .5 only tweet, accounts registering a 1.5 only reply and retweet, but they are equally out of balance in different directions. The Twitter IQ is the difference between an account’s “balance” and “1”. As such, in an ironic flourish, the lower one’s Twitter IQ, the better. The combined Twitter IQ employed in ranking the newspapers’ is simply the sum of the three applicable accounts. Below is a list of the newspapers who had the best aggregate Twitter IQ scores, meaning the three accounts we examined had the best overall balance between listening and talking. Please note that these results should be taken with a grain of salt, as we didn’t look at every single Twitter account for each newspaper.

Newspaper Circulation Twitter IQ
1. The Sun 210,098 0.0921
2. Austin American-Statesman 152,691 0.2834
3. St. Paul Pioneer Press 192,342 0.4807
4. The Florida Times-Union 122,655 0.4909
5. The Detroit News 169,748 0.5213
6. Chicago Tribune 501,202 0.5997
7. Democrat and Chronicle 135,776 0.6075
8, The Buffalo News 173,925 0.6159
9. Orlando Sentinel 206,205 0.6617
10. The Commercial Appeal 192,631 0.6620

Here is the list of the specific accounts we looked at that have the best Twitter IQ scores.

Twitter IQ Rank Twitter Accounts Twitter URL Followers Twitter IQ
1 Alesha Williams Boyd http://twitter.com/AleshaBoydAPP 145 0.00000
2 Omar Gallaga, Digital Savant http://twitter.com/omarg 3,652 0.00060
3 Sophia Ahmad http://twitter.com/SophiaAhmad 2,243 0.00720
4 Julio Ojeda-Zapata http://twitter.com/Jojeda 7,689 0.01300
5 Bethany Clough, Business Blog http://twitter.com/BethanyClough 320 0.01380
6 Walt Mossberg http://twitter.com/waltmossberg 24,773 0.01700
7 Michelle Deal-Zimmerman http://twitter.com/suntravelblog 1,349 0.01730
8 Gus Sentementes http://twitter.com/gussent 1,601 0.02360
9 MichMoms http://twitter.com/MichMoms 1,004 0.03020
10 Los Angeles Times http://twitter.com/latimes 38,845 0.03500

See our full rankings of the newspapers in aggregate, and the individual accounts themselves, at the link below.

Update: We decided to remove the list of the lowest ranking accounts, since it wasn’t our intention to bring negative attention to those with low scores.

  • http://www.bivingsreport.com/2009/the-use-of-twitter-by-americas-newspapers/ The Use of Twitter by America’s Newspapers

    [...] strategy.technology.impact « Critical Exposure Wins TBGives $10k Web Consulting Prize Ranking the Twitter IQ of Newspapers [...]

  • http://www.sltrib.com Kim

    I’m confused that The Salt Lake Tribune’s account is listed as being so low. Where does the 1.3813 number come from? If I look at the full report spreadsheet, our main account @sltrib scores a 0.409. Even the relatively inactive Sundance account, which we only use for the festival and when there is fest related news (dry most of the year) scores a .5208.

    We have a very interactive feed compared to most media out there, have won awards for our social media work, and have several active staff members on Twitter as well. Where in the world did you come up with 1.3813?

  • http://www.sltrib.com Kim

    Just to follow up… now that I look at the rankings again, our score of 0.409 on our main account should put is as the number three TOP Twitter newspaper, and nowhere close to the bottom of your rankings.

  • http://twitter.com/alrindfuss Allen Rindfuss

    I appreciate your position, Kim, and as a Sundance Festival alum and general fan of your beautiful state, am sympathetic.

    Having said that, the rankings system I devised is intended to take into account balance on a scale from .5 to 1.5, and as such, the closer a balance score is to a 1, the higher the account is ranked. Accounts that predominantly tweet (often via some kind of feed) have a balance score closer to a .5, and accounts that predominantly retweet/respond have a balance score closer to a 1.5. The absolute difference between 1 and the balance score determines the account’s ranking…meaning, the closer an account’s Twitter IQ is to zero, the higher it is ranked for our measure of interactivity balance.

    The aggregate newspaper rankings are based on the sum of the Twitter IQ for the three accounts measured, and, again, the closer that score is to zero, the more balanced and the more highly ranked.

    As the study points out, due to its limitations (number of accounts/paper, in particular) it is imperfect. And there are doubtless other valid measures of a newspaper’s social media success.

  • http://www.clasesdeperiodismo.com/2009/12/18/asi-usan-twitter-los-diarios-de-estados-unidos/ Clases de Periodismo » Post Topic » Así usan Twitter los diarios de Estados Unidos

    [...] El IC (Coeficiente de Interactividad) de las cuentas de Twitter de los medios estadounidendes aquí. [...]

  • http://wir-sprechen-online.com/2009/12/18/twitter-and-newspapers/ Twitter and Newspapers « Wir sprechen Online.

    [...] The use of Twitter by newspapers in the U.S.; http://j.mp/7k5j6r and a ranking of their Twitter IQ; http://j.mp/5iy15b [...]

  • http://injersey.com Ted Mann

    I think the address for Alesha Williams Boyd is incorrect. Should be http://twitter.com/aleshaboydapp

  • Allen Rindfuss

    We’ve corrected the address to reflect Alesha’s most current account, Ted. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

  • Gordon

    Nice to see the Baltimore Sun doing so well. We all know that numbers never tell the whole story. The key to twitter success, I believe, is in the relationship that reporters have with their community (P2P, in particular) as well as the quality of their reporting.

  • http://www.blogginggeneration.info/ Maurine Heiskell

    Where do you get your inspiration? I’d have problems writing something this good.

  • http://www.Omaha.com Brian

    Thanks for an interesting study.

    Just a heads up, but you addressed the wrong Twitter account for The Omaha World-Herald and Omaha.com. A fan (I hope) set up a Twitterfeed account to grab all of our headlines and publish them (not quite sure why). You grabbed that account (@omahawh). In reality, we tweet as @OWHnews (as well as a number of sports accounts).

  • http://www.smsrack.com Nausheen Rehman

    Interesting…..

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