Cities4Climate: The Power of Influencer Engagement

As many are aware, momentum for climate action has recently shifted to a more local level. That’s why the team at Onalytica and I chose to zero in on the power and potential of Twitter influencer engagement around the #Cities4Climate tag. It is no surprise that the global C40Cities organization has lead the charge and built upon the broader conversation.  And, just past the reality check of November’s U.S. election, that organization’s December 2016 conference generated a flurry of Twitter activity.

Now that it seems likely the U.S. government will not follow through on their piece of the Paris Agreement, many of our cities’ Mayors, Chief Sustainability Officers and Chief Resilience Officers are heeding the call. Both in the U.S. and globally I’d argue, Twitter has the potential to be seen as a key tool. As we witnessed during COP21, tweets from key individuals (@Cfigueres, @PaulPolman) and key brands (@UNFCCC, @CDP ) raised a digital roar that influenced real-life connections and sparked conversations for the greater good.

The potential for the #Cities4Climate hashtag to have a similar congregating, supporting and amplifying effect could be exponential. Let’s take a look at who is already involved and where the opportunities lie.

Mapping the Community

In order to identify the social influencers and brands we started by extracting over 25Ktweets tweets from 1st November – 1st December 2016 mentioning the key words: #Cities4Climate and #C40Cities. We then added these tweets and accounts into our database, categorized and curated a top 100 list of influencers and brands ranked on a combination of the 4 R’s (Resonance, Relevance, Reach and Reference). These accounts were then added into Onalytica’s Influencer Relationship Management software (IRM).
This network map shows the number 1 influencer Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris at the center, and all the #Cities4Climate and #C40Cities conversations to the influencers in her field. It’s interesting to note the thicker line between Anne Hidalgo and C40Cities showing a stronger relationship and more communication between these 2 accounts:

Here is another network map created with IRM showing the number 1 brand C40Cities at the center:

Building Momentum

The power of a hashtag can be leveraged far beyond events or specific campaigns, which is an opportunity not yet well utilised. For example, while #climateaction built momentum around COP21 and maintained some conversation, the real substance and place for engaged influencers to gather has since built around the more specific tags. Great information and new city influencers are not only for climate action during conferences like @C40cities or @compactofmayors events. Big events help #climate4cities influencers discover one another and “start” conversations, but then the energy seems to be lost. Climate action can no longer allow for that fade in interest.

Another point worth noting, the influential organizations in the climate action space are fairly obvious, and so easy to find and follow (which is a great thing). However, the power from here may be in the individual authentic engagement of key #cities4climate leaders. People like Matt Petersen, the Chief Sustainability Officer of Los Angeles, Stephanie Stuckey , the Chief Resilience Officer of Atlanta and Daniel Zarrilli, New York City’s Chief Resilience Officer are already leveraging their influence for positive, climate impact.

The more a thriving Twitter ecosystem of organizations and individuals exists to “love up” and support one another’s progress in this cause, the better. Now more than ever – and again with perhaps a bit of extra emphasis on the U.S. – amplifying the entire conversation reflects the strength of the climate action cause. Building solidarity between real-time climate action events or marches will help keep us energized.

Insights You Can Use Today

Three, of the many things I’ve noticed in the data (feel free to add what most interests you in the comments below):

• Influencer gender is quite balanced: The fact that women are already almost half of this individual influencer mix points to the extra potential of #women4climate in the #cities4climate work. As someone focused on women and the leadership potential in climate action overall, I’ll be doing more study and can keep you posted.  Keep an eye out for a future blog post by Onalytica and I that looks a bit more deeply into the #women4climate tag.
• Good hashtags don’t have to lose impact past the event: There is great between-event opportunity for those who continue to contribute to a particular discussion tag. Those who choose to can take the lead and be very visible, while amplifying all the wisdom and information that many others may not know to tag. The work they put in (which can be fairly minor) to maintaining the tag in “quiet” times earns them greater influence when the next event comes around, for one thing.
• Twitter influencers hold significant power in which stories get told and shared: Despite recent evidence to the contrary, I am one who still believes that Twitter can be an incredible way to build a platform and leverage it for good. If you are a leading off-line voice in climate action, your story may not yet be reaching the broad digital audience that awaits. You are writing articles, speaking at events and doing all sorts of traditional, off-line, connecting and amplifying, so why not take it one step further for even greater climate action impact?

How This #Cities4Climate Influencer Information Matters

Given these lists and graphs on #cities4climate influencers, how might this activate more individuals and organizations?  First, realize that simply being on the list means nothing, if you don’t use that influence for furthering the topic of your “influence” – climate action.

Now is the time to add intention! If you ARE on the list, study the information and better understand how you or your organization can improve. Otherwise, commit – and do that now – to join and further the #cities4climate action-supporting information sharing. Find the individuals and organizations that curate the best, most motivating, links or wisdom and share. Post your own city’s content to add to the collective information bank and grow the social capital of #Cities4Climate.

The #Cities4Climate Call To Action:

Cities focusing on climate action today must use all the tools and connections they can possibly identify to forward their missions. Don’t get stuck thinking Twitter is only a one-way digital broadcasting medium. For this particularly critical cause, the data certainly hints at much more strategic potential than that.

For more insight on #cities4climate and a great discussion with Andrea Learned and Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (CRO for Atlanta), check out our podcast.

About the Author

Andrea Learned is a climate action-focused writer and strategic communications consultant helping business and nonprofit influencers develop authentic, high impact, leadership platforms. Andrea’s expertise in understanding the women’s market (she co-authored Don’t Think Pink, which published in 2004 ) lends her writing work – for HuffingtonPost , her own blog, and many other publications – deep insight into the potential for women, especially, in sustainability leadership roles today.

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TOP 100 INFLUENCERS

Below is a list of the top 50 influencers talking about #Cities4Climate and #C40Cities on Twitter. If you want to see who ranks from 50-100 be sure to download the full report by clicking the download button below!

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Rank	Twitter Handle	Name	Company	Influencer Score
1	@Anne_Hidalgo	Anne Hidalgo	Socialist Party	100
2	@MayorOfLA	Mayor of Los Angeles	Democratic Party	52.03
3	@MikeBloomberg	Mike Bloomberg	Bloomberg L.P	47.97
4	@dzarrilli	Daniel A. Zarrilli	NYC Office of the Mayor	38.10
5	@MayorofLondon	Mayor of London	Labour Party	34.18
6	@marty_walsh	Mayor Marty Walsh	Democratic Party	32.64
7	@eduardopaes_	Eduardo Paes	Green Party	30.05
8	@MarkWatts40	Mark Watts	C40 Cities	29.89
9	@SadiqKhan	Sadiq Khan	Labour Party	25.07
10	@CloverMoore	Clover Moore	Independent Politician	24.09
11	@CharlieHalesPDX	Mayor Charlie Hales	Democratic Party	21.74
12	@NYCMayor	Bill de Blasio	Democratic Party	19.73
13	@AndreaLearned	Andrea Learned	learnedon.com	18.58
14	@MayorBowser	Mayor Muriel Bowser	Democratic Party	16.54
15	@PatriciaDeLille	Patricia de Lille	Democratic Alliance	15.19
16	@CFigueres	Christiana Figueres	UNFCCC	14.53
17	@KajEmbren	Kaj Embrén	South Pole Group	13.19
18	@PEspinosaC	Patricia Espinosa C.	National Action Party	12.16
19	@PKlugman	Patrick Klugman	Council of Paris	12.14
20	@anthawilliams	Antha N. Williams	Bloomberg Philanthropies	10.90
21	@HerveMarro	Hervé Marro	C40 Cities	10.51
22	@JohnTory	John Tory	Independent Politician	10.47
23	@mayoredlee	Mayor Ed Lee	Democratic Party	10.29
24	@austinfblackmon	Austin Blackmon	City of Boston	10.17
25	@LaurenceTubiana	Laurence Tubiana	IDDRI	10.04
26	@UN_PGA	UN GA President	UN	9.81
27	@TommyWells	Tommy Wells	Democratic Party	9.62
28	@DenisCoderre	DenisCoderre	Liberal Party of Canada	9.45
29	@Brendan_C40	Brendan Shane	C40 Cities	9.41
30	@ShelleyPoticha	Shelley Poticha	NRDC	9.31
31	@Jose_Harris	Josh Harris	C40 Cities	9.15
32	@ChicagosMayor	ChicagosMayor	Democratic Party	9.00
33	@sethschultz	Seth Schultz	C40 Cities	8.93
34	@topnigel	Nigel Topping	We Mean Business	8.64
35	@LeoDiCaprio	Leonardo DiCaprio	Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation	8.51
36	@ICLEI_advocacy	Yunus Arikan	ICLEI	8.39
37	@KaminisG	George Kaminis	Independent Politician	8.35
38	@HakimaElHaite	Hakima El Haité	Popular Movement Party	8.32
39	@mattspete	Matt Petersen	City of Los Angeles	8.22
40	@sudhvir	Sudhvir Singh	EAT Forum	8.16
41	@MayorEdMurray	Ed Murray	Democratic Party	8.10
42	@Celia_Blauel	Célia Blauel	Eau de Paris, Mairie de Paris	8.07
43	@CarlosMorenoFr	Carlos MORENO	City Council of Paris	7.97
44	@AvecAnne	AvecAnne	City Council of Paris	7.87
45	@HMolinValdes	Helena Molin Valdes	UNEP	7.68
46	@UN_Spokesperson	UN Spokesperson	Socialist Party	7.55
47	@MayorAdler	Mayor Adler	Democratic Party	7.48
48	@SustainableAkl	John Mauro	Auckland Council	7.43
49	@makower	Joel Makower	GreenBiz Group Inc	7.41
50	@MCLemardeley	MC Lemardeley	City Council of Paris	7.39

 

TOP 100 BRANDS

Here is a list of the top 50 brands talking about #Cities4Climate and #C40Cities on Twitter. If you want to see who ranks from 50-100 be sure to download the report to get the full top 100 list!

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

Rank	Twitter Handle	Name	Influencer Score
1	@c40cities	C40 Cities	100
2	@CompactofMayors	Compact of Mayors	75.27
3	@ICLEI	ICLEI	70.15
4	@UNFCCC	UN Climate Action	58.97
5	@WorldBank	World Bank	57.78
6	@NYClimate	NYClimate	55.77
7	@100ResCities	100 Resilient Cities	50.16
8	@BloombergDotOrg	Bloomberg.org	46.19
9	@Citi	Citi	43.65
10	@Cities_Today	Cities Today	43.35
11	@CDP	CDP	42.13
12	@WRIcities	WRISustainableCities	41.63
13	@DOEE_DC	DC Energy & Env.	35.70
14	@Sustainia	Sustainia	34.74
15	@EcoWatch	EcoWatch	33.57
16	@TheWorldPost	The WorldPost	32.49
17	@UNEP	UN Environment	30.34
18	@FordFoundation	Ford Foundation	29.89
19	@theGEF	GEF	29.75
20	@Citiscope	Citiscope	29.37
21	@CityLab	CityLab	28.81
22	@WBG_Cities	World Bank Cities	27.66
23	@GreenovateBos	Greenovate Boston	27.59
24	@NRDC	NRDC	27.52
25	@CECHR_UoD	CECHR	25.36
26	@ForeignPolicy	Foreign Policy	25.23
27	@UN	United Nations	25.19
28	@ClimateGroup	The Climate Group	25.16
29	@FastCoExist	Co.Exist	25.14
30	@EATforum	EAT Forum	24.84
31	@ICLEI_USA	ICLEI USA	24.52
32	@WBG_Climate	World Bank Climate	24.21
33	@cityofsydney	City of Sydney	22.46
34	@Connect4Climate	Connect4Climate	22.28
35	@ArupGroup	Arup	21.66
36	@SFEnvironment	SF Environment	21.50
37	@WorldResources	World Resources Inst	21.48
38	@nycgov	City of New York	20.38
39	@ClimateMayors	@ClimateMayors	20.32
40	@ClimateKIC	Climate-KIC	20.25
41	@UNHABITAT	UN-Habitat	20.13
42	@NRDCSolutions	NRDC Urban Solutions	20.04
43	@FAOnews	FAO Newsroom	19.38
44	@CitiesAlliance	Cities Alliance	19.36
45	@Siemens	Siemens	19.33
46	@USGBC	USGBC	19.02
47	@IWAHQ	IWA Network	18.46
48	@SierraClub	Sierra Club	17.39
49	@WRIClimate	WRI Climate	17.38
50	@WHO	WHO	17.35

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