Ah, what the hell!
Pink News is calling for nominations for most influential LGBT tweeters for another of these interminable lists that seem to be in vogue right now. This follows the Stonewall awards…and the Indie awards (which saw our very own Sarah Brown wash up as top of the influential trans list)…and no doubt yet more lists to follow.
Unlike previous such lists – perhaps it is the nature of twitter to attract the more shameless self-publicists – people seem not to be shy of asking for nominations.
At risk of missing someone out, i’ve so far clocked requests for nominations from Sarah B (again), from Paris Lees, from Chris Ashford, from the crew at Trans Media Watch, from the Reverend Sue (if a retweet counts as such) – and no doubt not a few others before the night is out.
Hey ho. Not to be outdone, i’ve politely, shamelessly, joined the throng and asked for nominations for myself.
Still, pausing for a moment’s seriousness, i am not altogether sure how to call this one. Is the judging to be done according to hwo influential someone is AND the fact they tweet?
Or is it according to the influentialness of the tweetery itself?
So: i’d definitely count Sarah and Paris as influential people…but not so convinced that their tweets are quite so, unless you count rock-climbing and techy issues amongst the things that count as influence.
Chris Ashford, too, i respect enormously for his LawandSecuality blog (wish i was the one writing it!) but his tweets? Er…there’s an awful lot of soap in there and blow-by-blow commentary on highly popular tv programmes. Should that count?
Bethany Black is pretty prolific, even if she hasn’t asked for a nomination yet. But again, how influential?
And me? I guess i’d consider “influential” to be something to do with the power of my insights on twitter…or my ability to mobilise the masses, or something. But actually, that is not, mostly, how i use twitter. Nope: its a tool for giving a heads up to blog posts and documents and downloads.
So maybe i’m another of these people who exerts some degree of influence AND tweets, as opposed to being an influential tweeter.
In fact, to be honest, some of the most influential trans tweeters of late, in terms of reach and engagement with other folk have been the folk from My Transsexual summer…espesh the lovely Sarah, who hasn’t been nominated yet.
Nor Natacha Kennedy, who of all of us does seem to use twitter that much more pointedly to make political points.
I don’t know. I wonder, in the end, if it isn’t rather a pointless exercise. Which brings me back to the $64,000 question: should we be compiling lists at all?
Because influence and the qualities that get people to vote for you are quite different things. A lot of the most important and influence laden work goes on behind the scenes.
I wouldn’t class her as an influential tweeter: but for my money, one of the most impressive operators at a national level (I’ll take this down if it embarrasses her) is Jennie Kermode, not just of Trans Media Watch, but several other places beyond.
But because she gets stuff done quietly and without fuss, i’d guess many people won’t think of her.
Paris – well, she’ll get votes for the stuff that is out in the headlights…but she does a lot of key stuff, too, that will never really be reported.
And on and on.
Do we really want lists at all? And if we do have them, do they ever mark anything worth marking?
Hmmm. Think i’ll go tweet that. 
jane
xx
ETA: and now Juliet Jacques is seeking nomination.
