What do the different categories mean?

Idea Starters – this small collective of people are the creative brains behind many of the thoughts and ideas that other people talk about. Even though they may not necessarily have a large audience themselves, their insightful opinions often flow and are repeated throughout conversations long after they have left. They are typically well connected to other idea starters (where they collaborate on thoughts) and amplifiers (who they often rely upon to spread their views). Idea starters tend to be well connected to curators and amplifiers.

Amplifiers – these people frequently have a large audience and following. Their expertise may be deep but often they rely upon other contacts to provide opinion to which they then let their readership know about. They often have professional or commercial motivations such as journalists or analysts but are also more often than not self-created experts and avid sharers of information. Their advantage and their burden is their huge number of followers they need to keep satisfied. This behaviour ensures that they need to receive pre-packaged content that they can easily repost, retweet or repurpose so that their audience does not diminish. Amplifiers are frequently well connected to idea starters as the source of their content.

Curators – this group though having a far smaller audience are perhaps one of the most influential groups. Long after the idea starter and amplifier have left a conversation, it is the curator that maintains discussion. This niche expert collates information about a specific topic and is frequently sought after for advice about this specific area. They often take part in discussions with idea starters and are avid readers of topic-specific amplifiers.

Commentators – these people individually have little influence. Their behaviour often resembles little more than adding a comment without contributing greatly to the conversation. Their influence should not be ignored but should instead be viewed as a collective to measure the trend of opinion around a subject. An interesting factor is that this group are often self-moderating - when negative comments are posted often these contributors will often intervene to correct inaccuracies or a unfounded negative views.

Viewers - In the conversation this invisible group who we call viewers don’t leave a foot print except through Google. Indeed it is through Google, and the impact of viewers on search results, that these other groups become influential and evolve their role within a conversation. Authority rests with the search patterns of those who simply observe in a democratic world.

Your Influence score - Your influence could increase if you followed more people and engaged with them. Take part in the conversations, post interesting content and don't be shy about saying what's on your mind.

Your Popularity score - Your popularity score is low but this can easily be fixed. This number is solely based on how many followers you have. Many Twitter measurement tools purely rank people according to this metric, however just because someone is popular doesn't mean they are influential. However, to increase your popularity follow more people who are relevant to the areas that you find interesting. A good way to do this is to find a peer who uses this well and look at who they follow. Follow people from their list, post regular and interesting content and add hashtags to make it easier for people to find your tweets. You’ll have more people following you in no time.

Your Engagement score - Your engagement is low because of the way you interact with your community. Twitter is not just about broadcasting your thoughts, telling the world about the great pizza you had last night or pushing your latest post – it’s about conversations. Take the time to know the people who follow you and contribute to the many interesting discussions out there.

Your Trust score - Your trust score is low because the content that you tweet is either not credible, interesting or newsworthy. The Edelman Trust Barometer states that 77% of people refused to buy products or services from a company they distrusted. It is trust that makes someone act – for this reason alone, having a high trust score is considered by many to be more important than any other category. Trust can be measured by the number of times someone is happy to associate what you have said through them – in other words, how often you are retweeted. To increase your trust score create more posts that will give your followers a reason to retweet what you have said.