The Most Influential NASCAR Related Twitter Accounts

There are over 13,000 Twitter accounts with bios that contain the word, NASCAR. Over the past few years, we've seen an increase in NASCAR accounts from drivers, drivers’ loved ones, spotters, media professionals, fans, crew chiefs, pit crewmembers, racetracks, sponsors and fans.

Inanimate objects accounts are on Twitter for race-related items like The Orange Cone. There are also a handful of fake parody accounts featuring NASCAR executives, drivers and even their beards.

According to Klout, here are the most influential NASCAR related Twitter accounts and their bios for the past 90 days:

1. @NASCAR - Official news and information on races, drivers, teams and industry events

2. @KevinHarvick - Driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet in the Sprint Cup Series for Richard Childress Racing

3. @mw55 – (Michael Waltrip) – NASCAR fan

4. @DennyHamlin - Driver of the #11 FedEx Toyota Camry in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

5. @RyanNewman39 - NASCAR driver of the #39 US Army/Haas Automation/Tornados Chevrolet

6. @KaseyKahne - Race Car Driver

7. @Kenny_Wallace - The OFFICIAL Kenny Wallace Twitter Page

8. @Elliott_Sadler - Racer. Hunter. Golfer. Softball Player. Proud Dad

9. @jpmontoya – (Juan Pablo Montoya) - Colombian car racer. Currently racing NASCAR, Former F1, IndyCar, Daytona 24, FIA F3000, Indy 500 winner/champ.

10. @BrianLVickers – Never Give Up

You may get an update on this list by visiting Klout at http://klout.com/#/topic/nascar.  The Klout score measures influence based on your ability to drive action. This list was created by Klout to determine online influence over a specific topic, NASCAR. Klout judges quality of content by the reactions it produces, not if the reaction is negative or positive. Some of the accounts above may create more negative, than positive responses with their tweets.

Please note, a Klout score is a single social media metric and may drastically change once the season starts or other NASCAR notables start tweeting. Notice that the Twitter accounts with the most followers, does not necessarily mean that they have the most influence online or offline.

Bring on the EGOsystem + Long Live Klout

One of my favorite sessions at SXSW this year was moderated and orchestrated by Brian Solis. It was called, "Welcome to the EGOsystem: How Much are You Worth?". The panelists included Ad.ly’s Sean Rad and Arnie Gullov-Singh, Klout’s CEO and Founder, Joe Fernandez and Jon M. Chu, Director of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and creator of The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers.

This session provided insights into Ad.ly's relationship with Charlie Sheen, including how brands can leverage celebrity endorsements with fewer liabilities for both parties using Twitter. Jon M. Chu is continually humbled by the responses of loyal Bieber fans each time he tweets.  Joe Fernandez discussed how he created Klout while recovering from surgery. I find it fascinating that Joe's Klout score is 59 and mine is 61. Charlie Sheen's is 94. I get to finally insert my favorite hashtag, compliments of Charlie Sheen, #winning.

There have been times when I've viewed a list and wondered why I didn't rank higher or even make the list at all. However, that is just one algorithm or way of comparing you to others. Regardless of your feelings about being ranked as a number on an influential scale, getting a higher Klout score, more connections on LinkedIn and thousands of followers on Twitter takes a lot of work. Like most of my peers, we hustle like Gary Vaynerchuk and pay-it-forward every day to deliver value to our audience. Numbers alone cannot determine your self-worth. Analyze several quantitative and qualitative metrics to verify and learn from your successes or failures.

Ask yourself: do people reach out to you to hire you as a consultant in your field? Do colleagues seek you for advice regarding problems in your area of expertise? Do you take the time to listen to your audience and provide solutions? If not, revisit some new ways to better engage your social network.

Update on Friday, April 15, 2011 at 5:43PM by Jenny DeVaughn

Brian Solis was kind enough to post the slides from his SXSW presentation:

SXSW 2011 Keynote: Welcome to the EGOsystem, how much are you worth

View more presentations from Brian Solis