The number of people following Ireland's top 100 journalists on Twitter rose 3% last year to almost 3.1 million, the latest #murraytweetindex - which ranks the most influential Irish journalists on Twitter - shows.
These journalists have collectively posted over 2.8 million tweets since joining the social media platform.
RTÉ's News' Managing Editor Jon Williams topped the Editorial section of the latest #murraytweetindex.
Mr Williams was also in third position on the index's overall "most influential journalists" section, coming after Today FM's Matt Cooper and Virgin Media's Gavan Reilly.
Meanwhile, RTÉ's Europe Editor Tony Connelly topped the news category, helped by his reporting of the Brexit process, with his followers rising by more than 23,000 in the past year.
Now in its 5th year, the #murraytweetindex, compiled by communications consultancy Murray ranked over 700 journalists across six parameters, measuring popularity, quality of engagement and level of activity.
Analysing the results by outlet showed that RTÉ - at 18 - had the most journalists in the top 100.
The national broadcaster was followed by the Irish Times and Independent News & Media both with 13, the Sunday Business Post with 10, Newstalk with 8, the Sunday Times/The Times with 6, Joe.ie/Maximum Media with 3, and Virgin Media, the Irish Examiner, the Irish Daily Mail, and thejournal.ie all with 2.
The biggest gainer in the latest index was Newstalk's courts correspondent Frank Greaney, up 365 positions to 28th place.
Other gainers included RTÉ's Washington correspondent Brian O'Donovan (up 337 places to 56th), RTÉ's political correspondent Katie Hannon (up 293 places to 19th).
Doug Keatinge, a Director at Murray, who led the research, said that with 53% of Irish people surveyed in the Reuters Digital News Report 2018 getting their news from social media, it is an important platform for journalists and media outlets to communicate with their audiences.
"Concerns over fake followers will continue to be discussed, and Twitter's purge last summer was a welcome attempt to address this issue.
"In an era of fake news, the reputation and credibility journalists can build on Twitter can go a along way to addressing the trustworthiness associated with news delivery on social media," he added.
