Alyssa Milano Retweeted Me and I Didn't Even Get a Lousy T-Shirt

Tweet

One of the many joys of social media is the way, every now and then, something completely unexpected occurs. This happened to me last week when Alyssa Milano retweeted one of my tweets to her 2.2 million followers (via a RT from @heykim). No, the actress didn't suddenly take an interest in my social media musings; she shared a photo I took of the One World Trade Center lit in red, white and blue to commemorate September 11.

New York's Freedom Tower, decorated red, white & blue in honor of the 9/11 anniversary. twitter.com/augieray/statu… /via @augieray @heykim
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) September 10, 2012

So, what happens when a celebrity retweets you? I thought this unique situation would provide some interesting insights. Would my follower count jump? Would my Klout and Kred score leap? Would I get cast in Alyssa's next project?

In the end, very little happened, and that's probably as it should be. My Twitter "Connect" stream got very busy for several hours, but despite garnering 135 retweets and 5,597 clicks to the photo, my follower count changed only modestly--instead of my usual dozen or so new followers per day, my count increased by 99 followers in four days before returning to a normal rate.

Interestingly, a photo I posted two days later received even more Twitter attention (but fewer clicks), without any celebrity sharing. My picture of sunrise over the World Trade Center the morning of September 11 was retweeted 721 times, and Twitter tells me this tweet earned 35 times more reach than usual.

Sunrise over One World Trade Center, 9/11/12. twitter.com/augieray/statu…
— Augie Ray (@augieray) September 11, 2012

I wondered if these two tweets would increase my influence scores. I'm not sure they should--the fact many folks liked two of my photos hardly makes me more influential on any topic, but these two tweets also represented a considerable amount of virality. From August 1 to September 12, I posted 500 tweets, and my pair of tweets last week represented more than two-thirds of the retweets and favorites received over this six-week period. (Hours slaving over research, writing and proofing blog posts, and all it takes is a couple snaps of my cell phone camera to deliver retweets, faves and replies--I think I'm doing it the hard way!)

So, did I become more influential according to the two influence-measurement services? In the days following my 9/9 photo tweet, my Klout score rose somewhat less than three points and my Kred score added five points--Klout increased almost four percent while my Kred score rose little more than 0.5%. Two different sites; two different algorithms; two different outcomes--but still no closer to knowing if either captures influence in a meaningful way. I tend to think that Kred, with its more modest upturn, probably reflects a more accurate measure of how my social prestige was affected by the social sharing of a couple of photos.

I am glad so many people enjoyed my photos. As a new resident of the New York area, I have been struck by the grace and presence of the rising One World Trade Center, and I am pleased a few folks felt I captured some of the beauty, hope and resilience the new tower represents. In the end, that matters more to me than whether my influence score jumped. That said, if Alyssa wants to cast me in her next movie or television show, she is welcome to send me a DM on Twitter.