Lucy P. Marcus Top Tweeter

Lucy P. Marcus has been ranked 5th in the Independent Newspaper’s “Twitter 100” list of the UK's most influential tweeters in Business. Sir Richard Branson has been named the most powerful tweeting Briton on the list.

The Virgin Group founder has 1.8m followers, and is placed ahead of Sarah Brown and her 1.1m followers, and comedian Alan Carr  - both in joint second place.

The top ten is dominated by major names from comedy and TV, including Ricky Gervais, Rob Brydon, Chris Moyles and Jamie Oliver, followed by Eddie Izzard and Derren Brown.

In terms of journalists and media, the BBC's business editor Robert Peston was the most powerful name after he recently broke a series of major stories on Twitter.

The list, compiled by the Independent and i, analysed who holds the most influence and power on Twitter, not just the most followers. It was based on how people respond to other Twitter users, the influence of their tweets and the number of re-tweets they receive.

The Independent's editor Chris Blackhurst commented: "This year's Twitter 100 shows Twitter's massive growth to become a major source of news content.

"The influx of populist names further shows the speed at which Twitter can break mainstream stories directly through individuals themselves."