Kevin Rudd is Australia’s ‘most valuable tweeter’
By ANISunday, October 24, 2010
MELBOURNE - Australia’s former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been named the country’s most valuable Twitterati.
A new online rating system, which puts dollar values on Twitter accounts, says the foreign affairs minister is worth about 61,000 dollars - double the second-most valuable Australian, Hollywood star Hugh Jackman, and four times the value of Julia Gillard, who replaced him as PM.
The ratings are compiled by TweetValue.com, which uses a complicated algorithm to assess the value of Twitter accounts.
Australia’s Top 10 people on the social networking site include six celebrities, two politicians and two members of the public.
Rudd landed the top spot, largely because of his 945,657 followers, who directly receive everything he posts.
Professional blogger Darren Rowse, one of two members of the public to make the top 10, said his valuation of 21,000 dollars was surprising.
“It might give bragging rights. But the actual value they gave me . . . well, I wouldn’t say my account is worth that,” the Courier Mail quoted him as saying.
“Rudd was the first politician to use social media to gain popularity. It helped him create a nerdy but still cool character,” Rowse concluded, on asking about Rudd’s popularity. (ANI)
