Edelman’s Telecoms Tweetlevel index shows Asia Pacific telecom operators slow at adopting twitter to engage consumers and unveils the world’s most influential industry commentators (Mobile World Congress, 15-18 February 2010, Barcelona)

Barcelona, February 11, 2010 – Operators dominate the list of most ‘engaged’ tweeters across the globe, accounting for over one-third of the top twenty slots in Edelman’s Telecoms TweetLevel index rating 1,000 of the world’s most active Twitter users.  Using a specially developed algorithm, Edelman tracked tweeters against a range of criteria including the interest that their posts generated amongst their readership and their involvement with the Twitter community. 

In terms of Twitter ‘engagement’ (how actively the tweeter participates within the Twitter community) T-Mobile USA takes first spot, with Vodafone in second, followed by Vodafone UK (3rd) and 02 (5th).

Australian telecom operators dominate operator twitter engagement in Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific telecom operators which ranked highly in the global index include Optus (6th), Vodafone New Zealand (9th), Telstra (10th), Korea Telecom (28th), Tata DoCoMo (45th) and LG Telecom (56th).
Bob Grove, Managing Director of Edelman Southeast Asia said “While Asia Pacific telecom operators have started using twitter as an engagement tool, they need to step up engagement to take advantage of this channel.  Edelman’s Asia Pacific Digital Brand Index has recently shown that Twitter has become the dominant channel for sharing news about technology brands across Asia and operators in the region increasingly need to tap this medium to engage and influence their customers.”

Globally operators are not primarily using Twitter to simply broadcast messages or promotions – as would be revealed through TweetLevel’s ‘influence’ rating, where operators are not actually significantly represented – but to engage and interact with their communities, in many cases on a purely one to one basis.

“Twitter has seen an exponential growth trajectory in Asia Pacific and is an excellent opportunity for operators to engage their consumers in a two way dialogue to build and reinforce customer loyalty and Average Revenue Per User (APRU).”

Telecoms TweetLevel
Edelman has also developed a Telecoms TweetLevel focusing specifically on telecoms-related content which revealed the internationalisation and language-independence of the platform as a communications medium, with commentators from Brazil, Indonesia, France, as well as English-speaking countries such as UK and the US represented in the top ten tweeters in terms of ‘influence’.

Jonny Bentwood, Edelman’s Head of Strategic Analysis, created the algorithm at the heart of the TweetLevel.
“We used over 30 metrics to create the algorithm behind the index. Unlike most rankings that look merely at the number of followers someone has, TweetLevel gives you a really clear picture of who is important within this increasingly influential forum,” he says.

There are four result metrics:
–    Influence – what you say is interesting and many people listen to it. This is the primary ranking metric.
–    Popularity – how many people follow the commentator
–    Engagement – how actively the tweeter participates within the Twitter community
–    Trust – whether people actually believe in the content

Each score is rated out of 100 – the higher the score, the more important the commentator is in Twitter terms.  The  rankings and scores were taken on 4 February ’10 and are subject to change over time.

The top ten global Tweeters identified in terms of overall influence in telecoms were (in descending rank): @chrisbrogan; @jeffpulver; @techcrunch; @om; @jeanlucr; @jowyang; @Scobleizer; @ndorokakung; @abduzeedo; and@9swords

Edelman’s Telecoms TweetLevel index is being published in conjunction with telecom’s sector’s largest conference, Mobile World Congress (Barcelona, 15-18, February ’10), where the firm will be supporting a number of clients including Samsung, Motorola, Microsoft and HP.

Edelman’s TweetLevel can be accessed at http://tweetlevel.edelman.com/.  To view the top telecom influencers identified by the report, go to http://twitter.com/Edel_Telecom/top-telecom-commentators.  You can also view the list on http://bit.ly/edel_telecom

About Edelman Telecommunications
Edelman is known for its global telecommunications and wireless expertise, working with companies in every realm of the telecom sector from established wireless companies to emerging VoIP providers and infrastructure pioneers.  To learn more and engage, please follow our team at www.twitter.com/edel_telecom.

About Edelman
Edelman is the world’s leading independent public relations firm, with 3,600 employees in 54 offices worldwide. Edelman was named “Agency of the Decade” by Holmes Report 2010, Edelman was named PRWeek’s “2009 Agency of the Year,” PRWeek’s “Large Agency of the Year" (for the third time in the last four years), and Holmes Report’s “2009 Best Large Agency to Work For” and was listed as a top-10 firm by Advertising Age in 2007 and 2008.  For more information about Edelman visit www.edelmanapac.com.

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