Lexington’s most influential users of Twitter include an outspoken sports commentator, an iPhone hacker, a local Realtor and — no surprise — University of Kentucky’s men’s basketball head coach, John Calipari.

 

But, believe it or not, Calipari doesn’t top the list.

 

The tweeter who beat Coach Cal: sexythinker.

“There are some of the most respected CEOs in our nation who know the handle ‘sexythinker,’” said Amanda Hite, aka sexythinker, a social media consultant who lives in the Hamburg area. “I’ll be at a conference, and there will be celebrity speakers who are like, ‘You’re sexythinker!”

 

Using Twitter Grader — a site that evaluates users of the popular social networking tool — KyForward determined Lexington’s Top 10 tweeters.

 

Twitter Grader’s algorithm not only takes into account a tweeter’s number of followers but also the influence of the tweeter’s followers, how often other people share the tweeter’s content and how often the tweeter is included on other users’ lists.

 

While it’s difficult to tell how many of Hite’s and Calipari’s tweets have been re-tweeted by others, Hite has put out more content. She has sent out more than 19,200 tweets compared to roughly 4,400 tweets by Calipari, who is No. 2 on the list.

 

“The top spot goes to sexythinker because her followers have probably more engagement on Twitter,” said Kakie Urch, an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky who teaches about social media. “Some of Coach Cal’s followers have probably just signed on to follow him and no one else.”

 

And with a limit of 140 characters per post, Lexington’s super tweeters have shown how to successfully gain influence. The people on this list have been cited by ESPN, helped local businesses succeed and were part of efforts that raised $1.5 million to end childhood hunger, just to name a few examples.

 

They have also elevated Lexington, making it a more technologically savvy city, Urch said.

 

“Lexington is physically ahead of other cities in using Twitter,” she said. “And Coach Cal and others are a major factor in that.”

 

Lexington’s Twitterrati

 

DeWayne Peevy never expected Twitter to become a part of his job description.

 

At the same time, however, he also never expected the fame.

 

As Calipari’s “Twitter guy,” Peevy, UK’s senior associate athletics director for communications, spends time at work and at home sending out Calipari’s tweets to the coach’s 1.1 million Twitter followers.

 

Peevy was even asked to sign some autographs when he accompanied Calipari to a basketball camp for young people two years ago, shortly after Calipari’s Twitter feed took off.

 

“So I signed ‘Dewayne ‘The Twitter Guy’ Peevy,’” he said, with a laugh. “Otherwise, you’d be like, ‘Who is Dewayne Peevy?’ when you look at the autograph on the basketball.”

 

Calipari’s Twitter account — UKCoachCalipari — has the most followers of anyone in Lexington. In early July, he was ranked No. 19 on CBSSports.com’s list of must-follow sports personalities on Twitter.

 

Calipari decided to start the account soon after he joined UK in 2009, after he went on a recruiting trip with Indiana University’s head coach, Tom Crean, Peevy said.

 

The two engaged in a friendly rivalry to see who could get the most followers. (Crean is losing with just over 39,400 followers.)

 

“It was a way for him to introduce himself to the fans,” Peevy said. “And it became a group he had to address versus just something else he had to do.”

 

Rather than Calipari tweeting himself — he doesn’t even own a computer, Peevy said — he usually texts or calls Peevy, telling him what to post for him.

 

“But I don’t want anybody to feel like he’s not talking to them. It’s him,” he said. “When you have over a million followers, you can’t fake that. They’re owed more than that.”

 

Calipari regularly breaks news via Twitter. On Friday, he tweeted that former UK basketball coach Joe B. Hall was joining the coaching staff of the Dominican Republic’s national team, which Calipari is also the head coach of.

 

“We get a lot of tweets (from other people) in Spanish,” Peevy said.

 

And because of the influence gained by such a fan base, Calipari also tweets about UK’s academic accomplishments, local charities and businesses to try to get them more support, Peevy said.

 

He regularly tweets about the frozen yogurt chain Orange Leaf, of which he is also an investor.

 

“We do have a lot of people who come in who are like, ‘I saw Coach Cal tweeted about it,’” said Evan Morris, an Orange Leaf co-owner. “I think one of the bigger things that draws is that he’s not just tweeting about it, he’s at our store a lot.”

 

Orange Leaf’s advertising has been almost exclusively word of mouth, through tweets, like the ones Calipari sends out, and Facebook messages, Morris said.

 

“With Facebook and Twitter, you’re talking directly with people,” Morris said. “You can have direct conversations with them without standing in the store with them.”

 

Peevy and Calipari have also used Twitter for giveaways and contests.

 

“Those things weren’t as much to grow our followers but to reward our followers,” Peevy said.

 

Matt Jones, Lexington’s No. 4 tweeter and founder of KentuckySportsRadio.com, isn’t shy about sharing his opinion of UK sports, and Coach Cal’s tweets aren’t immune.

 

“I don’t think people like that,” he said, of Calipari using his feed for more than basketball. “They don’t care about what you say if every other tweet is about yogurt.”

 

Jones, who goes by KySportsRadio on Twitter, joined the site in 2009, just as it was becoming popular, which helped him stand out among the pack, he said.

 

And he’s been surprised to see how Twitter has “completely changed the news model for everyone.” Twitter has leveled the playing field between mainstream and fringe reporting.

 

“It’s actually made sites like ours more important,” said Jones, who also hosts KSTV on Insight channel 2. “The hook is the headline. Twitter is about headlines. I don’t need to go to the Herald-Leader website to get the news. I need to find the right people on Twitter to follow.”

 

Jones feels his big Twitter break came during the trial involving Karen Sypher, who was convicted in 2010 of trying to extort money from University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino.

 

TV cameras and phones were not allowed to be used in the courtroom, so Jones would regularly exit the courtroom to tweet what happened, he said.

 

“And ESPN radio shows … were literally reading my quotes on the air,” he said. “I got 4,000 followers in two days.”

 

He now has more than 28,000 followers.

 

Hite didn’t have such a big break as much as just focusing on “thought leaders” and engaging in their conversations, she said.

 

“I would zero in on a topic on Twitter and find people talking about it,” she said. “And I would be able to start networking and collaborating with the ex-CEO of Yahoo … people I wouldn’t normally have access to.”

 

As CEO and founder of the consulting firm Talent Revolution Inc., she helps companies think about social media, employment branding, marketing and increasing talent. Twitter has become critical to her career, which involves building movements on social media, she said.

 

In 2010, Hite helped raise more than $1.5 million — a 108 percent increase over the year before — for Share Our Strength’s Dine Out for No Kid Hungry, a national event that brings together restaurants and consumers to raise funds for programs that fight childhood hunger. She serves as one of the event’s advisory board members.

 

“When I started engaging and putting out good content, that’s when it took off,” she said of her Twitter feed.

 

On June 21, she helped organize a “TwEAT Out,” where tweeters and other people online asked their favorite restaurants to participate in this year’s Dine Out event, which is in September.

 

Almost 1,000 people sent out more than 5,000 tweets, and the “#NoKidHungry” hash tag — a tag embedded in a tweet — became the second more popular trending topic on Twitter for three hours, beating out the hash tag for “The Voice” reality television competition. In addition, 52 restaurants registered at that time to participate in September.

 

“The more you engage and the more you give, the more you’ll get,” said Hite, who worked for Lexington’s Thomas & King before going into business for herself. “It’s not about the tools to me. It’s really about what we can do with them.”

 

Tweeting Lexington

 

And because of several big-time Lexington tweeters, many Lexingtonians have embraced the tool, perhaps more than residents in other cities.

 

“Coach Cal had a role in getting fans on Twitter,” Peevy said. “Our fan base has always been big on message boards. It was an easy transition to get them on Twitter as well.

 

“I know all our media are on it because they had to follow Coach Cal.”

 

Some of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council members were among the first council members nationwide to take advantage of the tool, Urch said.

 

Lexington resident Drew Curtis, creator the humor site Fark.com, pulled some people to Twitter, she said. StudentAdvisor.com, a website that helps students choose colleges, ranked UK No. 6 in May among its Top 100 Social Media Colleges list.

 

StudentAdvisor chose UK because of the “blue carpet” video coverage of this spring’s graduation and the SeeBlue virtual campus life tour, which the site said was its favorite.

 

“We’re ahead of Stanford University,” which ranked seventh, Urch said. “Stanford is the heart of Twitter,” which is based in nearby San Francisco.

 

By being so socially engaged, Lexington residents, who are not celebrities, are able to grow a following, the city’s reputation for being tech fluent improves and residents are able to get information quicker, she said.

 

“It’s in real time … in person and immediate access,” Urch said. “We’ve never had such close proximity to people we admire or hate or wonder about as we do with Twitter.”

 

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Lexington’s most influential tweeters

 

The following 10 tweeters were ranked as the most influential in Lexington by Twitter Grader on Friday. The names and bios below are listed on each person’s Twitter page.

 

1. sexythinker
Name: Amanda Hite
Bio: Igniting #BeTheChange Movements. Founder CEO Talent Revolution, Changer of Commerce, Keynote Speaker, Social Media Advisory Board Member Dine Out #NoKidHungry

 

2. UKCoachCalipari
Name: John Calipari
Bio: Official Page of Kentucky Head Men’s Basketball Coach John Calipari

 

3. p0sixninja
Name: Joshua Hill
Bio: iPhone Hacker

 

4. KySportsRadio
Name: Matt Jones
Bio: Founder of KentuckySportsRadio.com, host of KSTV and writer for CBSSports.com

 

5. whitneypannell
Name: Whitney Pannell
Bio: Eternal Optimist, Realtor, Social Media Addict, Devoted Swim Mom, Serious Multitasker, Download The Whitnet iphone app.

 

6. UKAthleticsNews
Name: Kentucky Athletics
Bio: The official Twitter account for the Kentucky Athletics Department.

 

7. denniston
Name: Shannon Denniston
Bio: Entrepreneur. Ferrari lover. Beach bum.

 

8. WebProNews
Name: WebProNews
Bio: WebProNews is a publication focusing on search, social media and eBusiness. News coverage includes Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Bing and Twitter.

 

9. johnclayiv
Name: John Clay
Bio: Sports columnist Lexington Herald-Leader

 

10. twellow
Name: Twellow Directory
Bio: Official updates from the Twitter directory service, from the producers of WebProNews.com

 

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Lexington tweeters with largest following

 

The following 10 tweeters have the most followers of all tweeters who list Lexington as their location, as ranked by Twellow. As of Friday, these tweeters had the listed number of followers.

 

1. UKCoachCalipari
Name: John Calipari
Followers: 1,143,192

 

2. p0sixninja
Name: Joshua Hill
Followers: 82,187

 

3. FHInvestor
Name: Felicia Harrison
Followers: 34,171

 

4. sexythinker
Name: Amanda Hite
Followers: 28,132

 

5. KySportsRadio
Name: Matt Jones
Followers: 24,257

 

6. whitneypannell
Name: Whitney Pannell
Followers: 23,687

 

7. jokerphillips
Name: Joker Phillips
Followers: 22,646

 

8. UKAthleticsNews
Name: Kentucky Athletics
Followers: 20,475

 

9. UKcoachbrooks
Name: Rich Brooks
Followers: 18,931

 

10. rcobb18
Name: Randall Cobb
Followers: 17,507

 

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Tips for tweeters

 

Lexington’s most influential tweeters had these tips for tweeters who want to follow in their keystrokes.

 

* Find a niche to tweet about, and follow people who are also writing about that topic.

 

* Tune into conversations on the topics you’re interested in, and start taking part. “If there’s a party going on, you go where the party is. You don’t start a party by yourself and try to get people to come,” said Amanda Hite, aka sexythinker, a Lexington social media consultant. “The communities already exist.”

 

* Focus more on listening to what other people are talking about and then respond, rather than only posting your own thoughts. “If you are doing all this talking, you’re going to just be talking to yourself,” she said.

 

* If someone mentions you, your company or your website, respond to them to encourage them to continue thinking of you.

 

* Do your homework so you can speak intelligently about what you’re interested in. “All success online starts offline,” Hite said. “You can’t fake it online.”

 

* For most people, having witty tweets isn’t enough to get noticed. “Nobody cares about anybody’s day. Everybody has observations,” said Matt Jones, aka KySportsRadio, founder of KentuckySportsRadio.com. “You have to have something that people care about, and whatever that is, it’s got to be different.”

 

* Choose a Twitter handle, or name, that’s easy to say and spell, so that people can share it by word of mouth. “If you have a brand, you have to go out and claim that Twitter handle for that brand,” said Kakie Urch, an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky who teaches about social media. “You might even go out and claim the Twitter handles around that brand.”

 

* Participate in Twitter events like “follow Friday,” or #ff as it’s written on Twitter. This is where a tweeter lists the Twitter handles of people they think their followers should also follow.

 

* Make your tweets full of content, something that other tweeters would like to share. “Tweets with links to great content get shared more often,” said Dharmesh Shah, founder and chief technology officer for HubSpot, which made Twitter Grader.

 

* Resist the temptation to only share self-promotional news. “Those don’t get shared, and odds of getting followers goes down,” Shah said.

 

* Invest the time to grow your following.

 

Photos of Calipari’s “Twitter Guy,” DeWayne Peevy, by Mark Boxley.