As much as there are seniors who might still be in the dark when it comes to Twitter—or any other social networking site for that matter—let’s not forget those who are already conducting their businesses online, and quite successful in doing so. If you’ve been in this arena for quite some time now, you know how Twitter can help you with your “branding” needs, and yes, it can be used for other purposes too, aside from just gathering friends and making your product known.
In Twitter, influence is important. In fact, IT IS more than important! Measuring your Twitter influence will help seniors know if they are doing fine in the Twitter community or if you are better off spending your time on other areas of your business. For one, keeping a Twitter account active can be time consuming and if you are not paying enough attention, you might find yourself in a dead-end. Your influence, like your own stat counter, gives you an idea where you might be lacking and what areas need some pushing.
·    Following-follower ratio. This is important. If you have a very disproportionate following-to-follower ratio, it does reflect bad practices you must be applying nowadays. Twitter requires certain amount of effort on your part, finding the right people and following them, but if a senior Twitterer starts following people (and I mean lots!) even outside of his or her market, they will only end up following a tad more people as compared to those who are following them. Doing this will make a senior look like a spammer, while having a high follower and low following ratio means you are interested in connecting with other people. Of course, having a higher number of followers indicates you have an influence there.
·    Number of lists under your name. Getting listed is one of the most important things you need to secure in Twitter as it indicates you are doing great in “branding” yourself. In other words, you are a great influence in your area and they know it.
·    Use Twitter tools. In truth, Twitter can be confusing, especially for us seniors. Good news is, there are about a hundred Twitter tools out there for you to use. What’s more, some of the good ones are for free! Just Google them using the search words “Twitter influence”.
·    Response to your tweets. This indicates you are getting enough attention with your tweets. If there is a healthy connection going on within your circle, you must be influential.