This paper presents an empirical analysis of user influence on Twitter, comparing three measures: indegree, retweets, and mentions. The study uses a large dataset of 2 billion follow links among 54 million users who produced 1.7 billion tweets. The findings reveal that popular users with high indegree are not necessarily influential in terms of retweets or mentions. Instead, influential users can have significant influence across various topics. Influence is not gained spontaneously but through focused efforts, such as limiting tweets to a single topic. The study also shows that influence varies across topics and time, and that top users based on different measures have little overlap. The results suggest that indegree alone is not a reliable indicator of influence, and that active audiences who retweet or mention users are more influential. The paper also highlights that influence can be sustained over time, with some users maintaining their status while others rise and fall in popularity. Overall, the study provides new insights into the dynamics of influence on social media and has implications for viral marketing and social media design.This paper presents an empirical analysis of user influence on Twitter, comparing three measures: indegree, retweets, and mentions. The study uses a large dataset of 2 billion follow links among 54 million users who produced 1.7 billion tweets. The findings reveal that popular users with high indegree are not necessarily influential in terms of retweets or mentions. Instead, influential users can have significant influence across various topics. Influence is not gained spontaneously but through focused efforts, such as limiting tweets to a single topic. The study also shows that influence varies across topics and time, and that top users based on different measures have little overlap. The results suggest that indegree alone is not a reliable indicator of influence, and that active audiences who retweet or mention users are more influential. The paper also highlights that influence can be sustained over time, with some users maintaining their status while others rise and fall in popularity. Overall, the study provides new insights into the dynamics of influence on social media and has implications for viral marketing and social media design.