Looking at the Forbes list of The Web Celeb 25, I thought it would be fun to look at their public following/follower numbers on Twitter. I don’t think there is any dispute that Twitter, love it or hate it, is the current king of the hill in the microblogging niche. For those who think Twitter is a waste of time, how many of Forbes chosen Web Celebs are not only on Twitter but actively using it right now?

I’ll draw a few conclusions, probably flawed, along the way from the data but you have the chance to weigh in below with your own interpretation, if any. The numbers below were accurate as of Wednesday December 19, 2007 and naturally subject to change by the time you read this.

1. Perez Hilton (unofficial? automated blog updates) twitter.com/perez
Following 0 - Followers: 28 Last update: within last 24 hours

2. Michael Arrington (official) twitter.com/techcrunch
Following 78 - Followers: 5,162 Last update: within last 24 hours

Funny: check out Mike Arrington saying he will stop following somebody that asks for diggs:

Considering he is following less than 100 people of the 5,100+ that are following him, he must have a lot more criteria for not following others than this?

3. Mark Frauenfelder (official) twitter.com/Frauenfelder
Following 7 - Followers: 195 Last update: 3 months ago

4. Seth Godin (official, automated blog updates) twitter.com/SethGodin
Following 0 - Followers: 853 Last update: less than 24 hours ago

5. Cory Doctorow (official) twitter.com/doctorow
Following 7 - Followers: 693 Last update: 7 months ago

6. Matt Drudge (official?, 1 update) twitter.com/drudge
Following 0 - Followers: 14 Last update: 8 months ago

7. Gina Trapani (official) twitter.com/ginatrapani
Following 86 - Followers: 575 Last update: less than 24 hours ago

8. Mark Zuckerberg (Official, *protected*) twitter.com/markzuckerberg
*Following 1 - Followers: 1 Last update: *protected, unknown

9. Harry Knowles (no account?)
Unknown, no search results. If you have details on Harry’s Twitter account, please use the comments below. I also tried an unsuccessful search for aintitcool.

10. Robert Scoble (official) twitter.com/Scobleizer
Following 6,950 - Followers: 6,890 Last update: less than 24 hours ago

11. Frank Warren (no account?)
Unknown, no search results. If you have details on Frank’s Twitter account, please use the comments below. No result for post secret, but curiously there is a twittersecret that allows you to send along secrets and have them posted anonymously.

12. Om Malik (official, *protected updates*) twitter.com/om
Following 146 - Followers: 137 Last update: *protected, unknown*

13. Will Leitch (no account?)
Unknown, no search results. If you have details on Will’s Twitter account, please use the comments below. Nothing for deadspin.com either.

14. Jeff Jarvis (official, 2 updates total) twitter.com/buzzmachine
Following 17 - Followers: 325 Last update: 6 months ago

15. Kevin Rose (official) twitter.com/kevinrose
Following 22 - Followers: 1,076 Last update: 6 days ago

Note: Kevin is one of the people behind competing service: pownce.com.

16. Kathy Sierra (official? no updates) twitter.com/lefthead
Following 0 - Followers: 0 Last update: never

17. Fake Steve Jobs (unofficial? blog updates only) twitter.com/FSJ
Following 0 - Followers: 72 Last update: less than 24 hours ago

Note: Doesn’t appear that Dan Lyons, the author of the Fake Steve Jobs is on Twitter either (?)

18. Markos Moulitsas (no account?)
Unknown, no search results. If you have details on Markos’ Twitter account, please use the comments below. I tried searching for dailykos too.

19. Xeni Jardin (official) twitter.com/xenijardin
Following 87 - Followers: 1,249 Last update: less than 24 hours ago

20. Ryan Block (official) twitter.com/ryanblock
Following 45 - Followers: 592 Last update: less than 24 hours ago

21. Glenn Reynolds (no account?)
Unknown, no search results. If you have details on Glenn’s Twitter account, please use the comments below. I tried searching for Instapundit too. Nadda.

22. Pete Cashmore (official, mixed with automated blog updates) twitter.com/mashable
Following 647 - Followers: 2,215 Last update: less than 24 hours ago

23. Steve Rubel (official) twitter.com/steverubel
Following 1,452 - Followers: 2,947 Last update: less than 24 hours ago

24. Heather Armstrong (official) twitter.com/dooce
Following 39 - Followers: 1,742 Last update: a month ago

25. Darren Rowse (official) twitter.com/problogger
Following 371 - Followers: 369 Last update: less than 24 hours

Hmm thoughts
As noted in the Forbes summary three of the Boing Boing editors are included in the list (Frauenfelder #3, Doctorow #5, Jardin #19). Here’s some other stats:

No presence: 11 of 25 (44%) - those that appear NOT to have a direct Twitter presence either by using bots to just aggregate what’s already on their blog or haven’t updated in the last month.
Non-selfish: 3 of 25 (12%) - who follow more than follow them? Robert Scoble (#10), Om Malik (#12) and Darren Rowse (#25). Is it more popular among these ‘celebs’ to be followed than to follow?
Active: 8 of 25 (32%) - who appear to be active Twitter users. Michael Arrington (#2), Gina Tripani (#7), Robert Scoble (#10), Xeni Jardin (#19), Ryan Block (#20), Pete Cashmore (#22), Steve Rubel (#23) and Darren Rowse (#25). So does this mean that these 32% “get” Twitter? Or is their attention misguided, since a greater percentage 44% do not have a non-automated presence on Twitter?
Bots: 3 of 25 (12%) - who are using automated feed only. Perez Hilton (#1), Seth Godin (#4), Fake Steve Jobs (#17).
Protected: 2 of 25 (8%) - who are protecting their feed. Mark Zuckerberg (#8) and Om Malik (#12).

Sidenote: This is day #66 of my Twitter experiment (along the left sidebar of the homepage you can see a counter) which basically involves me trying to find value, if any, in the service. I’m building programs for it using the API, adding friends (600+ now) and making messages (900+ now). One major setback on the API side is currently the network is jammed and not accepting a lot of server requests. Alex on the Twitter team says the new data center migration won’t happen until after the first of the year. Bummer

On the list above as of this writing, I’m only following two of these people (Robert Scoble and Darren Rowse). I’d follow Om Malik too but haven’t followed anybody who protects their updates. A few people have changed to protecting their updates after I’ve followed them which is cool.

A major attractive stat to me for any unknown/new Twitter user that I’m not already following is having close to, equal or more than the number of people following them that they follow. This stat suggests to me, and I could be wrong, these people are more open to conversation from new people. It’s a bit disappointing to me that most of the internet celebs according to Forbes are as inaccessible as other entertainment celebrities, but it’s nice to see a few folks like Scoble who are very accessible.

What can you draw from this data, if anything?

Did this post make you go hmm?

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