Benjamin among mayoral ‘Tweet Elite’
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin has rated fifth among U.S. mayors who are active on Twitter, according to a marketing company’s survey that places Benjamin among the “Tweet Elite.”
A 60-day survey by Development Counsellors International, a marketing company, found that Benjamin’s average of 1.8 tweets daily helped rank him higher than his counterparts in Atlanta and Boston.
The most elite of the elite is Allentown, Pa.’s, mayor, who tweets an average of 11 times per day and scored well in all categories, Andy Levine, DCI’s president and chief creative officer, said in an interview.
Charlotte’s Mayor Jennifer Roberts edged out Benjamin with the No. 4 ranking.
Because Columbia is the smallest of the cities whose mayors made the Top 10, Levine said Benjamin “is punching way above his weight.”
The mayor's handle is @SteveBenjaminSC.
Benjamin, who was the cheerleader on City Council to build the $37 million city-owned baseball stadium, recently tweeted about the impending start of the season. The tweet included a video from another of the Benjamin's social-media accounts, Vine.
That's a good sound! Single game tickets are being printed and mailed today! #LetsGlow https://t.co/e5zCdW4zSL— Columbia Fireflies (@ColaFireflies) March 29, 2016
After the University of South Carolina’s women’s basketball team was upset in its hope to play for a national championship, the mayor tweeted: “Thank you GamecockNation for all the support! You all are truly the best fans across the land.” He included a cartoon image of a rooster’s head.
Further boosting Benjamin’s ranking in DCI’s first such survey is how many people the capital city’s mayor reaches. Benjamin’s audience penetration is 16.2 percent, compared with an average of 2 percent to 3 permanent among the 250 mayor’s sampled, Levine said. That category is the most important in the company’s rankings, he said.
The audience penetration figure takes into account each city’s population so that huge cities like New York do not overwhelm the rankings, Levine said from his New York City office.
The number of Twitter followers who respond to Benjamin’s messages is low – well below 1 percent who either retweeted or “like” Benjamin’s messages, Levine said
DCI did the survey between Jan. 1 and Feb. 29 without notifying the mayors, he said. DCI specializes in marketing cities and regions to attract tourists and economic investment, he said.
The tweeting-est mayors in US of A
Mayor Steve Benjamin is rated highly by a marketing firm that surveyed the use of Twitter among the nation’s 250 largest city mayors.
The Top 5 Tweet Elite mayors, according to the survey, are:
▪ Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore.
▪ Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C.
▪ William Peduto of Pittsburgh.
▪ Jennifer Roberts of Charlotte.
▪ Benjamin of Columbia.
SOURCE: Development Counsellors International survey conducted Jan. 1 through Feb. 29, 2016
This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 6:28 PM.