Text100 Digital Index: Energy, Finds Most Visible U.S. Energy Influencers

Ranking identifies top politicians, journalists and analysts for energy issues

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Text100 today announced the results of its first Text100 Digital Index: Energy, which determines the most visible U.S. influencers within the energy industry. The study evaluated the key energy players amongst politicians, journalists and analysts to find the most influential members of each group based on social and traditional media prominence.

“From coal and the Keystone Pipeline to Solyndra and investments in renewable sources, the topic of energy has been widely discussed and debated this year”

“From coal and the Keystone Pipeline to Solyndra and investments in renewable sources, the topic of energy has been widely discussed and debated this year,” said Aedhmar Hynes, CEO of Text100. “We set out to discover who is shaping perceptions in energy, what issues they are discussing and how prominently they are featured, to help brands determine the most appropriate influencers to engage.”

Politicians

Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman, Ed Whitfield (R-KY) and Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) were found to be the most visible politicians, receiving total influence scores of 3,983 and 3,591 respectively. Influence was scored based on media prominence in their discussion of energy strategy – including domestic drilling, coal and the renewable energy market and other clean energy sources in both traditional media as well as blogs. Both the Congressman and Senator were found to be vocal around the Keystone Energy Pipeline debate, which dominated political energy discussions in the last year.

In line with these findings, the study reported oil, renewable energy sources and clean energy as the top energy issues discussed in the political sphere, shaping 42 percent of the energy conversation.

Other politicians ranked in the top 10 most influential included Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-MN), Rep. Don Young (R-AK), Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Gov. Sam Brownback (R-AK), Gov. Edmund Gerald Brown (D-CA.) and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

Journalists

Eric Wesoff, Editor-in-Chief, Greentech Media is the top ranked journalist within the energy media. His coverage of the Solyndra bankruptcy, one of the most impactful events in the industry, along with his broad range of coverage on renewable energy sources and electric vehicles made him the most prominent journalist for energy issues with a top influencer score of 952.

Among journalists, oil, climate change and Solyndra generated the most buzz in the energy conversation, with these topics accounting for 50 percent of media coverage.

Rounding out the rankings of the top 10 journalists are:

• Jonathan Fahey, The Associated Press
• Andrew Restuccia, Politico
• Wendy Koch, USA Today
• David Roberts, Grist
• Thomas Friedman, The New York Times
• Cassandra Sweet, Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal
• Dina Capiello, The Associated Press
• Marc Gunther, Fortune
• Ryan Tracy, Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal

Analysts

Christine Tezak with ClearView Energy Partners, formerly of Baird Research, and Sam Jaffe of IDC Energy Insights, were found to be the most visible analysts for the energy sector. Tezak’s analysis of climate change issues, including coal emissions and domestic drilling and her position as a source for top media such as Reuters and Bloomberg gave her an overall influence score of 893.

Jaffe’s coverage of emerging energy issues, such as energy storage and electric vehicles and his frequent appearance in high-profile outlets such as The New York Times, ranked him second with an overall influence score of 537.

Clean energy and renewable energy sources were a key topic for energy analysts, accounting for almost 60 percent of coverage. The study also found that analyst coverage focused on more progressive energy issues than politicians or journalists, with nuclear energy, electric vehicles, energy storage and biofuels among the top areas of focus.

Other top ranked influential analysts included:

• Joel Makower, Greenbiz.com
• Anissa Dehamna, Pike Research
• Bob Gohn, Pike Research
• Jill Feblowitz, IDC Energy Insights
• John Gartner, Matter Network
• Dean Chuang, IDC Energy Insights
• Albert Cheung, Bloomberg New Energy Finance
• Greg Neichin, Sigalon Environment

Other Key Findings

• Issues related to oil, ranging from supply and domestic drilling to its environmental effects, were the most talked about within all energy conversations.
• Clean energy topics outranked coal within all three groups, representing at least 20 percent of the conversation compared to at most 8 percent for coal.
• Journalists were found to be the most pessimistic group, emphasizing threats like global warming in their coverage of energy.

To download the full report and view the methodology from research firm Statsit, please visit the Text100 Digital Index: Energy webpage.

About Statsit

Brands are disconnected from the consumers and fail to keep up with the fast changing world and it takes more than a Facebook page to defend your position in your customer’ lives. At Statsit we help you to find new ways of creating meaningful and long lasting relationships with your customers. New kind of markets and challenges call for a new kind of research.

About Text100

We are the I.D.E.A. agency. We help our clients understand what matters to their audiences and create integrated stories to participate in conversations that inspire action. As a global communications consultancy, we use our I.D.E.A. consulting process to develop audience-focused campaigns that are insightful, creative, impactful and focus on digital environments as well as traditional media and influencers. We have a global staff of more than 500 and a direct presence in 30 cities worldwide. We work with many of the world’s elite brands and industry pioneers in technology, telco, healthcare, travel and tourism, automotive and energy all of whom engage Text100 to think differently and to be innovative in today’s fast moving communications world. Our client roster includes IBM, Skype, Cisco, MTV, Vodafone, PayPal, British Airways, Lenovo, and SanDisk. Our Text Factor makes us different and has been praised around the world. We have been recognized as the leading Digital Consultancy in APAC, the Best Midsize Agency to Work For in the US, and one of the UK’s Best Small Companies. For more information about Text100, please visit www.text100.com.