Shashi Tharoor ‘most influential Indian in social media’

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Shashi Tharoor has edged out Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan to emerge as the most influential Indian in social media.

Tharoor, in his surge to the top, has pushed behind a host of leading twitterati like Sachin Tendulkar, Salman Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Yuvaraj Singh and Dalai Lama. While he has an aggregate score of 79.955, Aamir's score is 78.495.

The list has been complied by Pinstorm, an India-based search-marketing firm. The rankings were carried out using two globally respected tools: Klout and PeerIndiex.

The Klout Score is based on three factors: true reach (depends on how many people you influence); amplification (depends on the number of people who respond to your tweets) and network impact (depends on how often top influencers respond to your posts.)

PeerIndiex too has three parameters: authority (depends on how much others rely on your recommendations and opinions); audience (relative size of your audience); and activity (depends on how related your tweets are to your field of work).

In fact, Tharoor and journalist Rajdeep Sardesai are the only tweeters other than those from Bollywood and cricket to grace the top ten.

Virender Sehwag, and not Sachin Tendulkar, is the only cricketer in the top ten. And the most influential Bollywood figure after Aamir Khan is not another actor but Ram Gopal Varma.

Madhuri Dixit, at fourth, is the most influential Indian woman in social media.