Comedian Fern Brady named as Scotland’s most influential Twitter user

Comedian Fern Brady is the most influential Scottish Twitter user, according to analysis by a communications agency.

One tweet earned the the Bathgate-born comedian well over 80,000 likes on the platform, after she revealed she had been wearing her builder’s hoodie and not her boyfriend’s as she thought.

Communications agency Spey said it was the strength of tweets like this going viral which put her the top of the Scots.

Spey, who compiled the results with Upfluence, said it looked at Scottish Twitter users who had more than 10,000 followers, were not politicians, and had tweeted more than ten times in the past year, and tracked how many likes, comments and retweets they had.

Sport and comedy dominated the top of the rankings and making their way into the list are Aston Villa player and Scotland captain John McGinn, in at number two; and Arsenal and Scotland footballer, Jen Beattie, at three.

Others in the top ten include comedian Eleanor Morton, rugby captain Stuart Hogg, broadcaster Neil Oliver, and Line of Duty star Martin Compston.

Thom Watt, head of digital at the Spey, said: “Fern Brady is brilliant at Twitter. Her jokes and anecdotes work perfectly for the format, and she’s found a huge audience online.”

He added: “The number of followers is only part of what makes social media accounts effective. We wanted to understand how active and interested those followers were in the tweets of different Scottish personalities,” Mr Watt said.

“We looked at the engagement on the tweets of high profile Scots and it’s clear to see that we’re a country of sport lovers with strong opinions, but we obviously don’t like to take ourselves too seriously, either.

“Our list reflects the Scottish people who have entertained, interested and provoked us throughout the year.”

Others in the top 20 include BBC Alba’s Calum Maclean, television presenter Storm Huntley, blogger and make-up entrepreneur Jamie Genevieve, and author Chris Brookmyre.

The data used to compile the list was taken from Twitter engagements from January 1 to December 10, and was gathered only on named individuals and not groups, associates or clubs.

The top 20 list in full is;

1. Fern Brady (@FernBrady)

2. John McGinn (@JMcGinn7)

3. Jen Beattie (@JBeattie91)

4. Eleanor Morton (@EleanorMorton)

5. Stuart Hogg (@StuartWHogg_)

6. Andy Robertson (@AndrewRobertso5)

7. Neil Oliver (@TheCoastGuy)

8. Martin Compston (@Martin_Compston)

9. Paul Black (@PaulBlack)

10. Amy Macdonald (@Amy_Macdonald)

11. Calum Maclean (@Caldamac)