Searching for Swindon on Twitter you’ll get lot’s of information about local services, sports clubs, organisations, events, schools, businesses etc. At the end of November 2022, we checked to see who tops the popularity league?
Which are the most popular Twitter accounts in Swindon?
Rachel Swindon, a local politics & current affairs account tops the list with near 100,000 followers, more than the number of followers as the top Labour & Conservative politicians combined. Local sports clubs and news websites are also well placed at the top, while the most popular local business is Vet’s Kitchen in 14th place.
Here are the top 20 Twitter accounts we found measured by the number of followers.
| Name | Followers | Handle |
| 1. Rachel Swindon, politics and current affairs | 97400 | @Rachael_Swindon |
| 2. Swindon Town Football Club | 96900 | @Official_STFC |
| 3. Heidi Alexander Labour candidate | 44000 | @Heidi_Labour |
| 4. Swindon Advertiser, local newspaper (with highest number of spam followers 31%) | 39300 | @swindonadver |
| 5. Robert Buckland Conservative MP | 32000 | @RobertBuckland |
| 6. Swindon Council, local government | 14500 | @SwindonCouncil |
| 7. Swindon Speedway, now closed but still popular | 12200 | @SwindonSpeedway |
| 8. Swindon Wildcats, ice hockey club | 11400 | @SwinWildcats |
| 9. Swindon Link Magazine, local news | 9795 | @swindonlink |
| 10. Total Guide to Swindon, local guide & advertising | 9571 | @TotalSwindon |
| 11. Swindon Supermarine, football club | 9415 | @SupermarineFC |
| 12. Swindon Web, local guide & advertising | 8749 | @SwindonWeb |
| 13. Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, wildlife & green livnig | 8697 | @WiltsWildlife |
| 14. Vet’s Kitchen, pet food business, top local business | 7263 | @Vets_Kitchen |
| 15. inSwindon Swindon Town Centre | 7224 | @inswindon |
| 16. Your Business Journey, consultancy business | 5224 | @VisionPull |
| 17. The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire, news | 4967 | @TBESW |
| 18. Steam, railway museum | 4955 | @steam_museum |
| 19. Swindon Bus Company, transport | 4598 | @SwindonsBusCo |
| 20. New College Swindon, education | 4563 | @NewCollSwindon |
Percentage of Organisations in Swindon using Twitter
Of the 106 local websites (mostly small businesses listed at OpenSwindon.co.uk) that we tested, only 50% had accounts on Twitter. Many businesses just don’t have the time or resources to be sitting around on social media, but they are also using other social networks which may be more suitable, such as Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and the new open source alternative to Twitter, Mastodon.
Most Popular Local Business Accounts
Local businesses with the largest number of followers were @Vets_Kitchen pet foods with 7263 followers, @inswindon which tweets about events in the town centre (7224), and @VisionPull local business consultancy. Our own account @SwindonWebsites by way of comparison, has just over 500 followers.
During the survey we ignored big corporate businesses with national coverage that are based in Swindon or have branches in Swindon, we wanted to keep things local.
Fake & Spam Followers
There are fake accounts on Twitter which are used to bump up follower numbers and we have checked these using FollowerAudit.
We found that @SwindonAdver had the highest number of fake accounts at 31%, next up was @SwindonLink which had 16% of fake followers, with most of the accounts at around 10%. After reviewing results after discounting spam, we found it didn’t really make significant difference to the table, but this is something worth bearing in mind.
What did we miss?
If you are aware of any popular local accounts that we’ve missed, we apologise, please drop us a line and let us know!
Data Available on Request | Twitter Account Management
If you’d like to see our source data, it’s available on request. We also offer content marketing services, Twitter account management, website design and managed WordPress hosting.
Published November 2022. The Editor at OpenSwindon.co.uk / a Rubber Dragon Limited brand