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Surprising Science — May 17, 2011

Social Measurement for the Masses

The Sunday Times hopes its new Social List, a social media measurement tool, will come to rank alongside the publication’s popular rich list as a marker of influence.

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What’s the Latest Development?

The U.K.’s Sunday Times has launched its own ‘Social list’, which, rather than relying on follower numbers and ratios, claims to rank users according to the responses of their wider network. It’s not having millions of followers that matters, but a million retweets or responses just might. The service scans Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and LinkedIn to compile a composite score.

What’s the Big Idea?

E-Consultancy says that perhaps more important in terms of virality and sustainability, the service also provides you with sub-lists showing exactly how well you are doing compared to your immediate social circle. “And it’s this gamification that should encourage a wider audience to try the app out.” Sunday Times’ online Editor Gordon Thomson said that the paper hoped that the Social List would come to rank alongside its popular rich list as a marker of influence.

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