The 100 most influential Twitter accounts in UK retail

The latest list of the UK’s 100 most influential retail Twitter accounts – previously updated by Lissted in May 2016 – shows that many of the retail industry’s digital stars have staying power as well as influence.

Of the top 20 accounts last time, 15 are still up there, and the top three places remain unchanged for the second year in a row. Neil Saunders – now an expat, yet still very influential within the UK retail community – stays at number 2, sandwiched between Retail Week at number 1, and its executive editor George MacDonald at number 3.

As far as newbies are concerned, 22 Twitter accounts have entered (or re-entered) the list this time, though you have to go down to number 40 to find the first of them. Some are brand new, while others return after a period of dormancy.

What’s particularly interesting is that journalists and media outlets seem to have gained in Twitter prominence over the last 18 months. For instance, Retail Focus has leapt 12 places from 17 to 5, Retail Gazette is up two at 6, and Talking Retail also rises 12 places to enter the top 20 for the first time. Perhaps, in this era of “fake news”, more Twitter users are seeking reassurance from trusted names in journalism?

Meanwhile, in the battle of Moz versus Paddington, John Lewis remains the most influential retail brand, down one at number 7, though M&S has risen eight places, to 10, to narrow the gap.

The effect of being leapfrogged by M&S and a few others is that my own ranking drops from 12 to a still-not-too-bad 15. Naturally, I look forward to the splendid Steve Dresser, up six at 14, tweeting about his restored pole position in our light-hearted battle for Twitter pre-eminence!

Graham Soult is a prominent retail commentator. Follow him on Twitter: @soult

How the list was put together

by Adam Parker, Founder Lissted (@AdParker)

As with the previous times we’ve put the Top 100 together, Lissted analysed the Twitter relationships and interactions within the UK retail community. The results are based on a sample of over 3000 of the UK’s top retail-related Twitter accounts – mostly UK-based individuals or organisations, but including others with a strong UK connection.

Lissted’s algorithms analysed 2.7 million follower relationships and tens of thousands of replies, mentions and retweets generated by these accounts. The analysis has three key elements which differ from most other approaches to ranking online influence.

Firstly it takes a peer-based approach, rating an account’s potential influence on the extent to which it is followed, mentioned or retweeted by peers from within the community, not metrics based on total Twitter followers, or reaction in general.

Second, it looks at all interactions within the relevant community, not simply ones that mention a particular keyword, for example: retail. It’s how members of the community relate to one another we’re interested in, not simply mentioning a list of terms. This helps a great deal in tackling accounts that try and game influence systems by posting frequently with certain keywords.

Finally, Lissted’s algorithms seek to take account of the apparent real world influence of individual accounts within the community where possible. They do this by looking at data indicators that we’ve identified over four years of development.

Find out more about Lissted: https://lissted.com/

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