Below is HeraldScotland's top ten list of politician tweeters. We’ve included the top six Scots at Holyrood and Westminster – and the four main opposition party leaders in the Scottish Parliament for comparison.
We’ve listed (but not ranked) them by number of followers, knowing that’s only one measure of popularity. Other factors to take into account in assessing Twitter “influence” include how many other Tweeters each of our 100 has, in turn, followed to build their audience: the bigger the ratio of followers to following, the more impressive the performance.
And how many Tweets they’ve each put out there: fewer can suggest each word is like gold dust to fans, while more indicates greater interactivity with followers.
Alex Salmond @AlexSalmond
Followers 23,167 Following 144 Tweets 609
Typical tweet "Trust in @scotgov four times higher than in UK Government - Scottish Social Attitudes Survey"
Douglas Alexander @DAlexanderMP
Followers 17,893 Following 1238 Tweets 1116
Typical tweet "Met Aung San Suu Kyi this morning to discuss the next steps on the long road to justice and democracy in Burma. She's an extraordinary woman"
Nicola Sturgeon @NicolaSturgeon
Followers 16,865 Following 2838 Tweets 3589
Typical tweet "Did Sue Barker really just refer to FM of Scotland, Sir Alex Ferguson?? Lol - not sure which of them will be more chuffed?"
Tom Harris @TomHarrisMP
Followers 13,742 Following 415 Tweets 29,1125
Typical tweet "Playing Twitter bingo. Just waiting for somebody to whitter on about Brown/Balls being to blame for Barclay's and I have a full house."
Danny Alexander @dannyalexander
Followers 10,513 Following 204 Tweets 98
Typical tweet "Hour long queues heading north on A9 at roadworks near Dunkeld - dualling the road should be much higher priority for Scottish Government"
Jim Murphy @jimmurphymp
Followers 9440 Following 4410 Tweets 1269
Typical tweet "It was with some sense of irony that today in 3rd week of Scottish school holidays we just voted on family friendly hours for Parliament."
Patrick Harvie @patrickharvie
Followers 6202 Following 773 Tweets 6628
Typical tweet "Cameron is finally being honest about Tory values; they simply don't think it matters if some people aren't housed or some children not fed."
Johann Lamont @JohannLamont
Followers 2654 Following 520 Tweets 194
Typical tweet "The future of the United Kingdom is about more than David Cameron versus Alex Salmond and conservatism versus nationalism"
Ruth Davidson @RuthDavidsonMSP
Followers 2115 Following 112 Tweets 156
Typical tweet "Note to city centre punters: bad idea to start kicking something off within charging distance of 2 mounted wpc's you haven't noticed.?#owned"
Willie Rennie @willie_rennie
Followers 2530 Following 189 Tweets 1977
Typical tweet "Feeling virtuous after a weekend eradicating buttercup & nettle jungle strangling the garden. But I now have a beetroot coloured head.?#fb"
Any analysis of a fluid medium like Twitter can be challenged. We’d like to hear your views – about any omissions, suggested inclusions, or even the worth of Twitter itself – using the comments box below. We’ll be updating our Scottish list later this year and you can help shape it. And with us, you’re not limited to 140 characters!
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