Display Twitter Followers Counts and More in WordPress

functions.php

<?php 
function get_twitter_user_data( $username, $field, $display = false ) {
    $interval = 3600;
    $cache = get_option('get_twitter_user_data');
    $url = 'http://api.twitter.com/1/users/show.json?screen_name='.urlencode($username);
    if ( false == $cache )
        $cache = array();
    
    // if first time request add placeholder and force update
    if ( !isset( $cache[$username][$field] ) ) {
        $cache[$username][$field] = NULL;
        $cache[$username]['lastcheck'] = 0;
    }
    
    // if outdated
    if( $cache[$username]['lastcheck'] < (time()-$interval) ) {
        // holds decoded JSON data in memory
        static $memorycache;
        if ( isset($memorycache[$username]) ) {
            $data = $memorycache[$username];
        } else {
            $result = wp_remote_retrieve_body(wp_remote_request($url));
            $data = json_decode( $result );
            if ( is_object($data) )
                $memorycache[$username] = $data;
        }
    
        if ( is_object($data) ) {
            // update all fields, known to be requested
            foreach ($cache[$username] as $key => $value) {
                if( isset($data->$key) ) {
                    $cache[$username][$key] = $data->$key;
                    $cache[$username]['lastcheck'] = time();
                } else {
                    $cache[$username]['lastcheck'] = time()+60;
                }
                update_option( 'get_twitter_user_data', $cache );
            }
    
            if ( false != $display )
                echo $cache[$username][$field];
                
            return $cache[$username][$field];
        }
    }
}