The Most Retweeted Political Parties (April 2010 – March 2012)

BN has an advantage in @KhairyKJ, who took 1st place with 21,162 RTs. His closest counterpart in PR is @LimKitSiang with 5,949 RTs.

When ranked by the number of users retweeting, the order changes slightly. 1st is @NajibRazak who was retweeted by 10,337 users; 2nd is @KhairyKJ with 8,168 users; and 3rd is @AnwarIbrahim with 5,423 users.

Only raw retweets (no comments added) were used to calculate these statistics. By retweeting a politician, a user helps to advertise a politician’s message to his/her followers. This can lead to an increase in follower count for a politician. In theory a politician who is popular will often get his/her tweets RT’d.

Ranking by users and retweets are both important for analysts. Discrepancies in ranking result in 2 situations, with these possible causes:

1)High in user rank; Low in retweet rank => cause: active follower-base; infrequent tweeting; tweets not worth retweeting

2)Low in user rank; High in retweet rank => cause: users may be retweeting in a closed or semi-closed network, and therefore not helping to grow the user-base that retweets; frequent tweeting; retweetable tweets

A large discrepancy may also indicate involvement in a hot issue. For example, Dr.Rais Yatim is no.19 when ranked by users, but no.27 when ranked by RTs. This is because his statements on the Erykah Badu concert ban were widely retweeted.

A table of Top 30 politicians for both ranking orders is included at the end of this report.

As of end of February 2012, PR had 102,134 active followers* whereas BN had 226,844 active followers. Despite the high number of retweets PR is lagging behind BN in follower growth. This could indicate a problem of ‘preaching to the converted’ or a problem with the message – something to be explored in future research.

Ahmed Kamal
3rd April 2012

*active followers = followers that had tweeted or followed/unfollowed other users in the last 3 months

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Summary of data used:

Pakatan Rakyat
————–
Total users 14598
Total retweets 81622

Barisan Nasional
—————-
Total users 20833
Total retweets 65693

PR Component Parties (name, users, retweets)
——————————————–

PKR 10520 47246
DAP 4970 25053
PAS 3201 9323

BN Component Parties (name, users, retweets)
——————————————–

UMNO 20176 59763
MCA 1235 3416
MIC 675 2480

Top 30 Most RT’d politicians, by retweets (@username, users, retweets)
———————————–
1. khairykj 8168 21162
2. najibrazak 10337 16983
3. anwaribrahim 5423 13750
4. limkitsiang 1701 5949
5. mpkotabelud 1228 4368
6. mukhrizmahathir 2393 4216
7. tianchua 1430 4092
8. n_izzah 2192 4075
9. hishammuddinh2o 1256 3676
10. tonypua 1405 3666
11. hannahyeoh 1663 3293
12. niknazmi 1257 3121
13. saifuddinabd 1232 2948
14. nikabdulaziz 1453 2821
15. elizabethwong 1088 2663
16. ngakorming 539 2492
17. khalid_ibrahim 1057 2299
18. azminali 919 2257
19. pkamalanathan 609 2149
20. saifnasution 720 1944
21. drdzul 739 1836
22. syedhusinali 914 1722
23. shamsuliskandar 576 1716
24. weekasiongmp 643 1538
25. fuziah99 464 1466
26. mbnizar 688 1389
27. drraisyatim 780 1349
28. simtzetzin 516 1199
29. tantawi100 639 1160
30. cmlimguaneng 560 1128

Top 30 Most RT’d politicians, by users (@username, users, retweets)
———————————–
1. najibrazak 10337 16983
2. khairykj 8168 21162
3. anwaribrahim 5423 13750
4. mukhrizmahathir 2393 4216
5. n_izzah 2192 4075
6. limkitsiang 1701 5949
7. hannahyeoh 1663 3293
8. nikabdulaziz 1453 2821
9. tianchua 1430 4092
10. tonypua 1405 3666
11. niknazmi 1257 3121
12. hishammuddinh2o 1256 3676
13. saifuddinabd 1232 2948
14. mpkotabelud 1228 4368
15. elizabethwong 1088 2663
16. khalid_ibrahim 1057 2299
17. azminali 919 2257
18. syedhusinali 914 1722
19. drraisyatim 780 1349
20. drdzul 739 1836
21. saifnasution 720 1944
22. mbnizar 688 1389
23. weekasiongmp 643 1538
24. tantawi100 639 1160
25. pkamalanathan 609 2149
26. shamsuliskandar 576 1716
27. cmlimguaneng 560 1128
28. ngakorming 539 2492
29. sivarasarasiah 536 1048
30. simtzetzin 516 1199