This year, we decided to launch the ‘Crystal PR IFC Media Tweet-dex’, to get a better understanding of how the media in different International Finance Centres (IFCs) are using Twitter.

There’s no doubt that Twitter is being used more and more by media outlets for researching, breaking and developing news stories. In a market where there is such competition between jurisdictions, it’s interesting to put things in an international context.

Initially, the Index seeks to identify the most followed media and the keenest media users of Twitter across the chosen jurisdictions. The IFCs currently being monitored are the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey and Malta, with the key media in each jurisdiction being included in the results – the range of jurisdictions and media may be extended in due course.

The results for the first quarter of 2012, January to March, are as follows:

Tweet Frequency

This measures the number of tweets by each media, both as an accumulative total since they started tweeting and during the quarter. The key findings are as follows:

• Channel TV (@channelonline) was the most prolific media tweeter in the first quarter of 2012 with 1,086 tweets over the three month period. The Guernsey Press (@guernseypress) tweeted the second most (982 tweets).
• BBC Isle of Man tweeted the least during the quarter, 183 times
  
   

Followers of IFC Media

This measures the popularity of each media Tweeter through the number of followers they have in total and the rate at which they are growing their number of followers. The key findings are as follows:

• The Isle of Man Examiner (@iomnewspapers) increased its number of followers most during the first quarter of 2012, by 23.8%. This was followed by BBC Radio Guernsey (@bbcguernsey) which increased its followers by 21.8%.
• Channel TV (@channelonline) is the most followed media in the IFCs with 3,585 followers. Jersey radio station Channel 103 (@channel103news) is second most followed (2,594).
• The Times of Malta (@thetimesofmalta) was the least followed media in the IFCs covered, with 479 followers. 
• Despite having the fifth highest number of followers, BBC Isle of Man (@bbcisleofman) increased its number of followers the least, by 6.6%.
  

These first quarterly results paint an interesting picture. Twitter is not being used by any one form of media, with a good mix of print and broadcast media using Twitter regularly. That Channel TV tops both the Tweet Frequency and Followers tables, and with BBC Guernsey and the Jersey Evening Post performing well in both set of results too, shows that there is a good correlation between how frequently Twitter is used and gaining followers.

Except for Malta, where the Times of Malta is both the least frequent and least followed media included, there is evidence of good use of Twitter across the IFCs, with the Channel Islands, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and Isle of Man media all demonstrating a consistent use of Twitter.

To begin with, these results are fairly rudimentary – how frequently the media use Twitter and who is following them. In due course, the intention is that this Tweet-dex can be extended to include more jurisdictions and more media, and to analyse in greater detail the message content of the media using Twitter.