| The governors have concluded their annual meeting in Washington and have been very busy tweeting. All governors now have a Twitter account. However, with only 140 characters per message there is little nuance and plenty of spin. Accurate facts become a casualty, and Christie is a good example of that.
With Twitter governors and others gain followers and influence. The Chicago Tribune points out, on Twitter while California Gov. Jerry Brown has the largest following--1.1 million, state population does not dictate the size of governors' following. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has just 19,000 followers while New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has 92,821. However, influence is not measured just by the number of followers. Klout, a Nielsen-like group, measures influence on a scale of 1 to 100, using data from social networks to measure: How many people you influence; How much you influence them; and How influential they are. According to a site which tracks Klout ratings for governors Scott Walker (WI) has the highest rating at 68 followed by Chris Christie at 64. O'Malley (MD) and Brewer (AZ) are at 63, Scott (FL) at 62, and Brown (CA) at 61. Further down the line is Cuomo (NY) at 56. From a selected list provided by Klout, Obama is at 91, Oprah at 83, and Bill Gates at 77. Closer to the governors are Hulk Hogan at 68 and George Lopez at 65. Klout labels Christie "a "Pundit" whose "opinions are wide-spread and highly trusted."
Event planners use Klout to build their guest lists, but you and I might note some disparity between what we think of an individual and his or her number of followers and influence. One such disparity might have to do with factual accuracy as opposed to spin. Take for example this tweet on February 24:
Governor Christie @GovChristie Simple question for legislature: Why not cut income taxes for all New Jerseyans when our fiscal house is now in order? ow.ly/9gEM1 My simple Tweet response would be "our fiscal house is NOT in order." A more nuanced and intelligent response of course requires more than a 140 characters. Moody's New Jersey Precis of February 23 leads off with "Improved private sector hiring has substantially diminished the downside risks to New Jersey's recovery, [however,] the pace of private sector hiring has not been strong enough to make a dent in the unemployment rate, which has yet to fall below 9%, and the public sector is still struggling with austerity measures." S&P's February 24 much commented-upon analysis indicates, "The budget remains structurally unbalanced, is built on what Standard & Poor's Ratings Services regards as optimistic economic projections to close the budget gap, and increases New Jersey's (AA-/Stable) reliance on nonrecurring revenues."
You are welcome to add examples of Christie Tweets that seem misleading, inaccurate or spintastic. Or you can register at Klout after reading their privacy statement to find out your own influence rating, but take your score with a grain of salt and don't be upset if Paris Hilton's score is triple yours. |
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