The ICAEW’s new membership magazine, Economia, has introduced a novel idea. They have teamed up with PeerIndex to identify and list the “The top most influential Finance accounts on Twitter“. And I’m currently ranked at number 38 which is flattering.
Sadly though I doubt the veracity of the list and thus can take no real delight in being included – tempting though it is. After all, I’m ranked above the Harvard Business Review, the IFS, HMRC, all of the Big 4, the CBI and many other worthy finance/accountancy bodies and individuals.
I’ve attempted to embed the list below. See how many names you recognise and might think of as ‘finance’ related. Does anything strike you as odd?
Quite simply I do not understand how the accounts were selected for inclusion. The ranking may or may not be based on an appropriate algorithm but that’s a separate matter.
Many (possibly most) of the personalities on here do not routinely tweet on finance related issues and are better known for other reasons – which therefore affects the level of interest paid to their tweets (whether on finance or other issues). To suggest that they are among the most influential finance tweeters is odd to say the least.
I have not attempted to dissect the complete list but thought I’d check out an accountancy firm that appears near the foot of the list. They have only ever tweeted 39 times and just twice a month for the last few months. Given that I curate two twitter lists that, between them, attempt to follow all UK accountants on twitter I can categorically state that this firm is not anywhere close to being one of the 100 most influential accountancy firms on twitter.
I fear that others on the list may be there for equally spurious reasons thus rendering it a novelty but nothing more I’m afraid. Shame really.
Do let me know what you think by commenting below.
That is the oddest list. As holder of a research masters, I’m putting on my academic hat and asking what is the source of their data and what methods did they apply to come up with that result?
You should be 23rd at least!
Since posting this blog I’ve been up to 37th place and down to 40th place so don’t be surprised if I’m no longer 38th.
I have to say that this is a great achievement and just goes to show that your name is out there. Congratulations on beating PWC and the Harvard Business Review.