New Year's Twitter Follower Survey for 104 accounts

From the 104 Essex Police twitter accounts, 20 of them have more than 1,000 followers and 8 of them have more followers than the Chief Constable (1,560).

I'm sure the Chief and Deputy Chief would de delighted to see all accounts have thousands of followers..



There are another 5 accounts that will get to 1,000 very soon. One shoutout to @DIRobHuddleston who sneaked past a thousand on or abouts Christmas Day Those five to follow are:

• @InspJuliaFinch
• @PCSOSarahRaison
• @PcDanHeard
• @SpSgtBooth
• @PcAlanConran

Slide on the right right is classic long tail where six accounts have over 2,000 followers.

Where the sort from oldest to newest reveals four accounts that stand out: DCC Matthew Horne, EP Rural Specials, PC Alan Conran and Insp Nick Eliot.

I will do another follower check in four weeks time, look out for that (1 Feb16).

Of course, the follower number on it's own does not say anything at all about the age of the account, how many tweets are made, what those tweets contain ie text, photo or a video etc or even how interesting or chatty the account holder is.

What I like is how the twitter sphere rallies around and supports each other. A great example, when EPMarine was getting close to a thousand a few weeks ago (16 Dec 15).

There is one account that could really help, and help a lot - the main Essex Police UK twitter account.

With over 116,000 followers, a name mention tweet could mean instantly letting people know these other accounts exist. That must be a good idea?

After all, being on twitter is nothing more than saying, Hey, I'm here in public sharing updates and information mixed in with some chat and the odd light hearted observation - as well as supporting the public and each other.

Name and Twitter	followers 4 jan 16
Leigh Norris @EssexChiefInsp	5682
Essex Roads Policing @EPAdamPipe	4241
Richard Thomas @InspRThomas	2990
Simon Phillips @PcSiPhillips	2718
Jürgen Reid @PcJurgenReid	2672
Lou Middleton @SgtLouMiddleton	2137
Lee Devall @InspLeeDevall	1707
Andy Long @PcAndyLong	1625
Stephen Kavanagh @CCEssexPolice	1560
Paul Nicholls @PcPaulNicholls	1497
Dave Hawtin @PcDaveHawtin	1397
Paul Austin @SgtPaulAustin	1220
Matthew Horne @DCCmatthewhorne	1173
Brad Dickel @InspBradDickel	1171
Essex Police Marine @EPMarine	1151
Matthew Grimwood @PCSOMatGrimwood	1137
Tony Mayo @PcTonyMayo	1080
EPRuralSpecials @EPRuralSpecials	1058
Leon Dias @COLeonDias	1052
Rob Huddleston @DIRobHuddleston	1011
Insp Julia Finch @InspJuliaFinch	967
PCSO Sarah Raison @PCSOSarahRaison	960
Dan Heard @PcDanHeard	951
Krystina Booth @SpSgtBooth	935
Alan Conran @PcAlanConran	928

Data sheet opens in separate window.

If you need to get a message out, then it's essential to have as many followers as you can. Every account is different, but I would argue an account with 1,000 followers would get a message read by 1%

As just one example, this tweet from PC Alan Conran (of a burning car) had 10 retweets and 10 likes. PC Conran has 934 followers. Do the math we have 10/934 = 1.07%.

However that's just one in a million examples. This popular tweet from CI Simon Anslow had 55 retweets and 34 likes (that's 45/586 = 7.7%) which is a great result.