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How Does Your Blog Feel?

05/06/2011 By Jayme Soulati

Or, better yet, how do you feel about your blog?

This blog post has been under re-write in my head for two days now. I’ve gone back and forth with how to present this as I didn’t want it to feel like I was complaining, depressed, or other. However, there’s something about blogging that’s hard to ignore – it’s your personal psyche that can get in the way.

Think on it…if you’re having a rough go, the tonality of your blog shows that. If you’re ever depressed, your words feel that way, too. It’s a good thing I didn’t publish yesterday (because my good friend Jenn Whinnem saved me with a coolio expletived blog post and title) because my exhaustion with two months of construction and a make-shift desk on a concrete slab with drywall dust for lipstick would’ve hindered the presentation of this content.

I’m not sure I still have this right…but, let me try anyway and see if this makes sense:

I wrote a post awhile back “Social Media, We’re All Talking to Ourselves,” and it got some positive and negative commentary; in fact, I got a slap to the hand. It was written when I was in a downtick of sorts, and that post mirrored the character of the day.

When I look around and dissect my social media experience, I see a peer group of highly astute people adopting and adapting to the next big thing in social. Everyone is jumping on board the Klout, the Quora, the Empire Avenue, the Evernote, the TED, and the everything because it’s what we do – we strive for that excitement and knowledge and thirst. But, where are our clients and those we serve? They’re way behind, still pecking away at “What is Twitter?”

Recently, Aaron Sachs wrote a similar post on his blog at SymplySocial, “Social Media Consultants: Are We All Just Preaching to the Choir?“, and he suggests that social media may not be as accessible to those not on the leader board. I was eager to read his take on how we all dance to the daily evolution of social.

About Blogs

There are industrial-strength blogs that feature every single bell and whistle with the most amazing design and wow factor. There are blogs done on free WordPress templates, and there are blogs still being published on Blogger, and WordPress.com sites. Although content is still king, it’s really challenging not to look at the A-list bloggers and then take a look at your own blog; this action can produce somewhat of a deflation in spirit.

What we bloggers need to remember is that there are those who thrive and strive to present the latest and greatest app, tool, game, concept, and more. I suspect they have oodles of time (Gini Dietrich wrote she spends 40 hours a week on Spin Sucks, and she just moved into the Top 40 of the Ad Age power 150), many peeps working to find angles and produce content, and a crack IT team to manage the back end. (I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing…not assuming…guessing.)

I’m now going to speak to myself in a public forum:

Jayme, you are one person with a full client load and client service comes first. Learning the technology of social media has always been my obstacle, yet the yearn to learn is my curse and blessing. It’s OK to have a blog that speaks to people and strives for warmth with welcome reception for all types of people. It’s wonderful to publish a blog where people who are shy, who don’t often comment feel comfortable stopping in. It’s OK not to be amongst the leaders every day, for what you deliver in content comes from a passionate place and striving for that sense of community is a goal that should never be forgotten. Remember not to be mechanical, because when that happens, it’s time to stop.

As said, I’m not sure I’m making total sense…it’s so easy to look around and want to be like Gini, like Mark, like Danny, like Griddy, like Jon, and like Sarah. But, you know what? It’s OK to be like Jayme, too ( Jayme).

(Image: ValueBookShop)

Do You F*!@-n Jam?

05/05/2011 By Jenn Whinnem

Please pardon the borderline-naughty language today! (Hey, notice the byline — it’s NOT Jayme Soulati.)

One of my exes was a drummer who took the idea of his drumming pretty seriously. He was forever getting the “let’s hang out sometime and jam” from not-as-serious musicians. Privately, these requests outraged him. “I’m a PROFESSIONAL. I don’t f*!@n jam,” he seethed at me after yet another one of these requests.

Recently my best friend Steph and I decided to borrow this phrase and apply it to requests for free labor. You know, “Can I pick your brain?” or even “want to be a part of my project (where I’ll end up sticking you with all the work)?”

“Sorry, I don’t f*!@n jam.”

Possibly this is an internal response. But slackers and cheapskates be warned: we don’t f*!@n jam.

Do You Jam?

Michelle Quillin of New England Multimedia asked recently on FB “How do you handle requests for “free” or “super-reduced price” services with a promise of “future work” and “referrals”?”

My polite response was: “’thanks but no thanks’ in most cases, “yes” in very special cases.” Of course, what I meant was the above (sing it with me!), “I don’t f*!@n jam.”

Small businesses need to be careful about jamming. You want to say yes, because saying yes feels good…right until you finish saying it, when it starts to feel terrible. Projects drag on and on. Your ideas are stolen and profited from. The “future work” and “referral” payoff never come.

Davina Brewer posted how she handles the “jam” request –she lays out some good responses you can actually say aloud. I particularly like step #1 – “tell ‘em it costs money.”

Gini Dietrich wrote about the true cost of brain-picking here. Her argument is, “…[in] industries where people sell their brains for a living…Time is how we make our money. We don’t make widgets. We don’t sell products. We don’t manufacture anything. We don’t process anything. Our brains are our products and…every time someone asks us for free help, they’re taking us away from clients or opportunities to make us money.”

Who’s In Your Band?

On the other hand, you’ll play music with your band, won’t you? So who’s in your band? For me, I’ll always help out a friend, because my friends rock and give it back to me in spades. If they don’t pay me, they’ll return the favor for sure.

If I don’t already have a relationship (business or personal) with someone, they aren’t in my band. No jamming.

So…do you jam?

Have you jammed? What was the result? How do you handle jamming requests?

(Image: Flickr Creative Commons by Jonas Bengtsson)

Standardize (Don’t Automate) Personal Success Measurement

05/03/2011 By Jayme Soulati

Rebecca A. Denison is a “klutzy, bubbly youngin’ taking on social media and PR measurement.” (Hey, those are NOT my words to describe her!). Today’s post is by an up-and-comer in the public relations profession; a woman I’ve been fully impressed by since I first met her on Twitter. Rebecca blogs over at One True Sentence (link above), and you can see her measurement topics appearing just about everywhere in PR blogs and circles. She’s got some fabulous posts on her blog about measurement, and how perfect is it that she segues from the series on Influence last week. Thanks, Rebecca, for sharing your expertise here; I’m so jazzed!

REBECCA A. DENISON SAYS:

Recently, Jayme wrote a great post which included some thought-provoking questions to start measuring your personal social media success (be sure to read the comments, too – tons of wisdom there). She also mentioned Klout as one tool she has used recently to measure her influence online.

I will be one of the first to jump at the chance to tell you why you should never rely on just one tool (especially an automated one) to measure influence. Influence is too contextual and situational. But that is certainly not my point today.

Personal success, much like influence, is entirely contextual and situational. This is never truer as when people, brands and companies search for the best ways to use social media. And so like influence, you just can’t automate the measure of personal success. Not with a single metric.

I joined Twitter in July 2009 when I was still a recent college graduate and searching for my place in this thing they call the workforce. Being a complete nerd, I literally wrote out the goals I had and how I would measure them. At the end of the day, my goal was to find a job, a company, a role that I fit into perfectly. But I was also looking to make a name for myself and share my passion with other nerds like me. I measured things like job offers and interviews, but also how many people referenced me as a thought-leader.

Everyone will have different goals for their own success in social media, but there will always be direct and indirect methods to show how far you’ve come. And it all starts with your goals. So let’s start there.

Standardize measurement of your personal success

1. Write your goals with pen. Goals don’t have to be nitty gritty. Think big picture. At the end of the day, if you were completely happy with your success, what would that mean? Would you have thousands of followers on Twitter? Would you be running a business through social media? Dream!

2. Define your terms. So let’s say you said you want to be a thought-leader. What does that mean exactly? Does that mean you’re well known? Does it mean your blog posts get read a lot? Maybe you are retweeted a bunch? This is where you get nitty gritty to really understand all the pieces that make up your goals. Think about setting time limits here, too. Do you want to be a thought-leader next week or next year? Give yourself time or even set smaller goals through the next year.

3. Find direct measures. Go through all of the pieces you defined above, and write down all the direct measures you know of. If you want to be retweeted more by next month, that’s an easy way to track, right? Using a tool like TweetDeck, HootSuite or CoTweet, you can easily find out how many times others share your thoughts. If you think there is a direct measure but don’t know what it is, do a bit of digging or ask around (even ask me). Don’t focus on finding an answer for everything, though!

4. Brainstorm indirect measures. For those terms that you just can’t find an easy way to measure, this is where you have to get creative. Something important to me was to be a source of expertise in measurement. I used the number of times someone recommended me as a person who might know the answer to track this. Not direct, but it’s close! If you’re a small business owner and want to increase foot traffic but can’t track your customers every hour of every day, try tracking foot traffic during lunch on Thursdays. If you see an increase, you can guess that overall traffic is increasing, and you can probably think up other ways to measure it more accurately, too.

5. Set yourself up to succeed. Once you have an idea of how you will be measuring, set yourself up to measure properly. If you want something to increase or decrease, make sure you measure a benchmark for comparison later. If you will need to use a tool to help you, sign up now and start tracking even if you won’t need the data yet. Trust me when I say measuring retroactively is much trickier.

How do you measure your own personal success? Even if you don’t take it too seriously, how do you measure progress?

Can We Measure Influence?

04/29/2011 By Jayme Soulati

Today marks the culmination of this week-long series on Influence. We’ve explored Klout, two camps, factors that influence, what it is, and now we look at ways to consider measuring influence.

Neicole Crepeau is a partner with Coherent Interactive, a digital shop specializing in all things web, social media, and digital, of course. Aaron Sachs is working on his Masters degree at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, where I’m certain his coursework includes many live discussions about measurement.

Neicole kicks off:

I believe there are several factors that contribute to defining influence:

Topic—nobody has influence in every area, most people have influence in specific areas
Community—most influencers are active in certain communities or have the greatest impact in certain communities
Activity—some influencers are content creators, others are mainly speakers, etc.
Type—There are different types of influence. For example, there are people who are very good at spreading the word/content, and might be valuable for content marketing purposes or to gain traffic to your website. There are people who are very influential in terms of shaping opinions—think Walt Mossberg in tech. A recommendation from him on a tech topic carries a lot of weight. There are people who are influential in their ability to start conversations and connect with individuals. I think you and Mark Schaefer fall into that category, Jayme. (Thank you, Neicole!) There are probably other types, as well, thought-leaders, etc.

From a business perspective, you’d want to connect with different influencers depending upon your goals and audience. You want influencers who are in the communities where your audience is and who are influential in the ways that will help with your goals. If I want to get someone to be a speaker at my conferences or do webinars for me, I probably want to connect with an influencer in the relationship-builder model. On the other hand, if I want my content shared widely to people interested in a certain topic, I probably want to connect with a content curator, as per my post on Mark Schaefer’s blog. And so on.

Measurement

Is there an effective way to measure influence? I don’t think so, not yet. Currently, systems are using proxies of real measurement. We use RTs and reshares to measure how good an influencer is at spreading the word. But we can’t really accurately measure that. If I share a link, someone clicks on it and reads the blog post I linked to, and then clicks the Retweet button on the blogger’s site, we’ve lost the trail. Someone may click the link that the reader shared, and that click should actually be attributed to me, but we can’t track it.

Klout measure shares and @’s and DM’s and comments on Facebook, too. That measure’s engagement of a sort, but from the number of interactions, Klout makes assumptions about someone’s influence. If the influence type is Walt Mossberg style, @’s and DM’s may not matter at all. What matters is how well-regarded the influencer’s opinion is and how well-spread his/her opinions are to a key audience, not whether he/she actually talks a lot with fans.

To really measure, we’d have to have a good breakdown of the different types of influencers, by topic and community, use different measures for each community, and measure all the way through. We’d need to know things like what audiences/customers the influencer is reaching, how far down the sales funnel it’s happening, who is sharing the opinion/information with customers, and whether it actually resulted in conversions (however you measure conversions: sales, registrations, etc.). We aren’t anywhere near that, yet.

Influencer identification and measurement is still in its infancy. We’ve got a long ways to go.

Aaron Sachs has some great

I want to begin with the tools that are out there–Klout, Backtype, PeerIndex. They all measure influence, but there’s a key thing missing, before we get to what the tools measure, and that is: Who is defining influence for these tools and what are they basing it on?

It’s all well and good to have an indicator based on partial metrics–Tweets, retweets, followers/following ratios, etc. But where is influence in all of this?

Michael Wu at Lithium has an excellent post on influence. In an interview with him, Michael stated that simply, influence is the ability to cause a change in mindset or actions. Essentially, influence is the art of persuasion. It is causing someone to think or behave a certain way. Whether the motives of the person influencing another person are “pure” or not is irrelevant to defining influence. However, we all hope that people influencing any field are pure of heart and have the best interests of an industry or field at heart and won’t influence the direction of an industry or field in a negative fashion. But that’s beside the point.

The tools that are being used to measure influence are broken. They don’t measure true influence. RAAK did several tests looking at PeerIndex and Klout. The key test was Klout, as that seems to be the standard right now. They found that the bot that tweeted the most had a higher score than the other three bots. By conducting that test, RAAK essentially found out that Klout’s definition of influence (and somewhat the industry standard, by proxy of accepting Klout as the defining measure of influence in the social media world) was relegated to Tweeting…a lot. Is that really how we want to define influence for social media? For that matter, do we want to define influence as simply retweeting, interacting with others, or posting content? I would hope not.

For social media, there has to be a CONCLUSIVE measure of influence. If the definition of influence is to cause a change of mind or behavior, then THAT is what should be measured. Simply measuring retweets or interaction does NOT prove conclusively that a person has experienced a change of mind or behavior. Sorry 🙁 long rant about the tools.

The other factors that are missing in influence are things like credibility, relevance of material to audience (or relevance in general), physical appearance, communication skills, and persuasive ability. These items are the major items that contribute to influence.

Then, you take into account the things that have contributed toward a person being influential–professional opportunity (essentially status–we’re more likely to believe someone who is in a position that lends them more influence or credibility), economic opportunity, and access to tools/communities.

Retweets, tweets, and engagement are not a conclusive measure of influence, not if it is defined as causing a change of mind or behavior. Really, the approach that the social media world should be taking to Klout and other influence measuring tools should be a mindset that understands that these tools don’t really measure influence. If anything, they measure how engaged you are with your audience. Engagement (does not =) Influence.

(Photo: NextWeb…never thought I’d see the day when Old Spice Man was relevant for an image; very cool.)

Define Influence with Goals, Trust, Behavior, Motivation

04/28/2011 By Jayme Soulati

This is the fourth post in the What is Influence series. I appreciate and thank our contributors today, Erica Allison, Michelle Quillin and Davina Brewer. Each of them are influential in their own right; they engage with their communities, they blog with aplomb, and they are accessible to anyone who wants to learn from their expertise.

What’s amazing to me about this series is that one word can conjure (not negatively) so many thoughts from a wide variety of people who blend disciplines in this social media marketing space. Please come back tomorrow when we close the series with Aaron Sachs and Neicole Crepeau who wrap this first phase with more on measurement.

Again, I appreciate the many comments and tweets about the blog content. I have enjoyed this! (This one is a bit longer than most to squeeze them all in…have edited a tad, Ladies, I hope you don’t mind.)

Erica Allison is president of Allison Development Group in North Carolina. Her public relations and social media firm is active in fashion, design and other industries. She blogs at Spot On. I had the pleasure of meeting Erica at Social Slam recently!

I view Influence as a goal, something that I strategically work towards in business and in relationships. If my suggestions, advice, or identification of information and insight can make someone move from point A to point B or choose one option over another, then I’ve influenced that person or persons. If my work or writings can cause someone to stop and think, or review their point of view from another perspective, that’s influence.

I find that the success of one’s influence is directly related to one’s relationship and level of trust between the two parties (or more) in the relationship. If there is a high level of trust in what one person (the influencer) says or thinks, or in their credibility, based on their accomplishments and real life experiences, then that influencer has tremendous potential to change opinion, inspire action or change, and generally “influence” another.

In addition to relationships and level of trust and credibility, I think context is a major factor here as well. In the social media world, Klout is obviously the major measurement tool for influence. It’s convenient to say Klout doesn’t matter or it’s flawed, but it is a consideration among folks who work in the social media world and to ignore it may in fact result in lost work, lost credibility and lost opportunities.

For those folks NOT working in social media, and trust me, there are plenty, Klout has no relevance what so ever. Influence is measured by results, pure and simple. If you can’t deliver results, your level of influence is called into question. Understanding your own level of experience, credibility and relationship ‘capital’ is key in understanding your own level of influence.

Michelle Quillin is co-owner of New England Multimedia. I’ve had the immense pleasure of working with Michelle at The SMB Collective, and she inspired me to produce my first video that shall remain unpublished at this time. She is consummate marketer on Facebook and recently launched a new LinkedIn Group.

How do you possibly measure influence?

In the realm of marketing our services via social media, my behavior changes as I “see” patterns of behavior online, including my own behavior. I’m a student of people, of the way we think, of how we engage with brands, of how they engage with us. I pick up on how people (including myself) respond to calls-to-action, even subtle ones, and then I in turn make choices to implement tactics and strategies and test the response. Over time, I’m getting more and more strategic as I see what works. I bet I could’ve learned all of this in school, but maybe not. Maybe it’s all about influence.

I’m a youth minister (7 years now), working with teens, and let me tell you – they are very, very easily influenced by media and entertainment, and they in turn wield powerful influence among their peers. They don’t even realize its happening. I wonder if we’re the same? Are we all being influenced all the time, even in ways we don’t realize?

Davina Brewer is owner of 3 Hats Communications with a very spritely blog. She is one of the most prolific commenters I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing, and her opinions are on the leading edge.

The biggest obstacle to defining and measuring influence in the social arena is qualifying and quantifying motivation. My motivations have been to make real connections that develop my expertise, build my credibility and yes, someday lead to a network and a community of professionals which just may include referrals and money-growing trees. If I found better, more effective and profitable ways to develop my skills, build community and establish credibility, my motivations and therefore the influence would shift.

That said something by Gini may sway my opinion; she’s got me thinking of Livefyre. Something from someone else, because of a connection and friendship, may pull my attention to a particular blog post, on which I may or may not comment or RT. And someone’s perceived reputation and “Klout” may bias my opinions on someone’s authority and prestige.

We don’t always argue, debate or disagree with influencers or those in positions to possibly help further our own goals and objectives. Now we certainly are NOT a bunch of kiss-ass sycophants and I love that, I enjoy the intelligent debates and discussions. But I’ll read posts from many a TopNoOneElseCaresBigNumberList and be unimpressed, yet see mostly praise in comments. I’ll follow their tweets that seem pedestrian, downright ordinary.

I wonder WHY some have the reputation and influence they are reported to. Then I remind myself that they’ve built that reputation and cultivated their community over time, w/ lots and lots of hard work. And that anyone can think the same of me. It’s the WHY that’s the challenge. Things and people only influence us if we let them, right? So what influence I have (which is negative numbers) or who has influence over me gets into WHY I allow that, just not sure charting and graphing tweets and clicks will really reveal that.

Three Influencers on Influence

04/27/2011 By Jayme Soulati

This week we’re talking about . I invited several influencers (for who is the true judge of influence?) to help shed some light on this esoteric topic, and the thoughts are provocative and inspiring. Thanks to contributors and , and I appreciate today’s thoughts via , , and . The purpose of this is to provide opportunity for opinions on a theme to be shared.

Ivonne Vazquez owns , and she is a contributor to as well as her recently re-launched blog:

Here is what I think about influence, but particularly, online influence. What social media has allowed us to do, very freely, is to impart information at the click of a button. Imparting information, retweeting an article or paraphrasing what someone else has said is not influence, it is an echo and echo’s fade. Tools capturing the effect of the echo – such as Klout track the amplification or the fading of the echo…but it is not influence.

defines Influence 1: to affect or alter by indirect or intangible means; 2: to have an effect on the condition or development of…

Influence in its quiet command and confidence, may empower the influencer with the ability to understand and, by one’s actions persuade or sway others into gaining their own understanding of a situation, cause or topic. Conversely, influence has a dark side.

Enter perception. Perception and online influence go hand in hand. If one is perceived to be an expert (whether or not it is quantifiable) then you have influence. In the digital world, the intangibleness of influence is directly related to the fact that perceptions can and do change in the blink of an eye. Be it the posting of a controversial blog topic, a misunderstood tweet, or lack of engagement with one’s followers.

The measurement of online influence, in my opinion, is akin to a dog chasing its tail. The perception is that the tail is within reach, the reality is you’ll make yourself dizzy chasing after it!

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Shakirah Dawud is a prolific copywriter at and also an editor. She provides further provocation about her thoughts on influence:

To be influenced is to be inclined to a direction due to an outside force. It ranges from immediate physical force to subliminal redirection over time, and from individual counsel to collective peer pressure. Influence is not easily quantifiable, because of its varying degrees, and because it’s often a combination of many rather than only one.

In the social media arena, calculates and reports an individual’s interaction or engagement with other individuals. But the influence of those influencers may very well have come through another influencer of that individual’s opinion.

Klout (wisely) makes no attempt to calculate the degree of influence. Only the people involved know the real dynamic of their relationship, and wise researchers into background would take the numbers from Klout more as a representation of the degree and color of an individual’s presence on social media, rather than his or her power in that arena.

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Petya Georgieva, is my colleague who from Bulgaria, and she’s highly connected. Here are her thoughts on influence:

Influence is something very powerful. It can change perceptions and behavior manners of a person or a group of people. But not everybody can be influential. Influential people are special, interesting and different – they have a set of abilities such as trustworthy, authority, knowledge in particular field, competency, even charisma; they are successful and authentic, they curate content and interact actively with other people; they are trend-setters and early-adopters, etc.

Finding influencers, as said, is hard work mainly because it requires time and a lot of digging. Hence, the important part of social media strategies is to listen and detect conversations as well as to spot the most interactive and compelling speakers. Working effectively and efficiently with opinion leaders is a great way to build reputation and to strengthen corporate / personal / organizational image. It’s important to highlight that building influence is an on-going, never-ending process.

But… Influence isn’t measurable or at least there isn’t one tool that can measure accurately the power of an influencer. I consider it can be defined thanks to different criteria according to every particular situation. For example, polls may be a good way to check out the change in perceptions for a particular period of time. On the other hand, boost of positive conversations about a brand and decrease in the negative comments, thanks to the interaction with opinion leaders, can be also measured as successful influence.

So most importantly we, as communications specialists, have to define our particular goals, then think how we are going to accomplish them and how networking with influential people in the particular field can support this process. When we finish these three steps, it’s time to define our success indicators, according to how we can measure the effect of positive influence.

Please share your applause for these insights below! Thanks, All!

Defining Influence: Two Camps?

04/26/2011 By Jayme Soulati

In our first post in the series on What is Influence, I presented three views from three influential people. Comments suggested each are saying the same thing, and yet, the pathway to defining influence is rocky (just like that journey to define public relations, if you recall). This week, I’m running a series of ponderences (I coin words) from a variety of Tweeps, and I thank each of you who has lent thought, time and writing to contribute.

Rachel Minihan is owner of Purple Phone PR, and I love how she writes her thought process in plain speak for us all to nod and ponder and agree (or not):

Well, I guess the thing is that the definition already exists, right? According to Websters, it means “the act or power of producing an effect without apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of command.” Let’s skip right on through the last part of that definition, because that’s essentially what social media IS – you throw your idea out there and see what comes of it. You don’t FORCE people to hear or experience it, right?

That leaves the phrase “producing an effect.” Yesterday, I was certain that this meant an action had to result. Now, I wonder…does an effect have to be an action? Can it just implant an idea or a feeling? Is one (action, thought, feeling) of greater importance than another?

This made me decide that I really didn’t know what the word “effect” meant (despite having used it a billion times in my life!). Looked that up. It actually means that it CHANGES the person or thing in some way. Ahh…so to influence something you have to actually change it!

Back to social media–How do we figure out if someone was influenced? How could we measure if they had been changed in some way?

The first thing that comes to mind is sentiment. “They” already measure positive, neutral, negative sentiment. Honing that a bit more could help; for instance, if I RT something without comment, that would be one thing: it simply shows that I found it useful enough for others to have it, but not something that really resulted in me being changed. But, if I added “this made my day” or “gosh, I needed a kick in the pants!” or “Wow, I never thought of that,”– it would indicate the tweet had changed my perspective.

What’s tricky are the “who you know” metrics, right? Because on one hand, if you know more people, the POTENTIAL for offering greater influence exists. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are influential.

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Following Rachel’s personal-brainstorm banter is Brian Ellis. He provides a nice counterpoint to Rachel – she of the esoteric-ness of influence, and he of the analytical measurement (remember when I said there are two camps?).

Brian Ellis is with Anocial Social Media:

Social media influence is the ability to inspire people to take action. We see this in simple forms with people like @GuyKawasaki and @mayhemstudios. They have a certain amount of influence shown in the sheer number of RTs they receive; that pertains to Twitter alone.

With Klout, I think that they are taking too much into consideration. They are trying to average out a score based on the “big two,” Facebook and Twitter. I feel like those are two separate entities. Tracking measurement for either is very much the same, but they are very different platforms with very different demographics. I think each platform should be measured separately and then can be put side by side to give you an overall feel.

That’s what all this really is anyway; it’s all about the feel. No matter what the numbers tell you, and as long as you are progressing, it really is about how it “feels” to you and to those you are putting your message out to.

I think that effectively measuring your influence must start with a decision as to where on the web you want to hold influence. Listen to which people are talking about you, and what they are saying; basic ROI will give you plenty of insight into your level of influence. Look at the simple things, like how many people have subscribed to your RSS, and it will show you in simple terms how influential you have become.

What Is Influence?

04/25/2011 By Jayme Soulati

Today marks the launch of a new series, “What Is Influence?” The concept came from the many in-depth comments delivered on the April 20 blog post about Klout. There seems to be two camps re Klout (the first mover, for all intents and purposes) for gauging influence scoring — one dissects the algorithm and the analytics behind the score and discredits that number; the other (camp) looks ahead at the significance and potential impact an influencer score will have on the industry at large. I’m of the latter camp…methinks Klout and other influence assessment via metrics and scores will change the face of business development and marketing.

Mark W. Schaefer, one of the most consummate B-to-B marketers I’ve had the privilege of “growing” with, suggests Klout-type apps are not to be taken lightly. Mark says:

At the end of the day, influence is your ability to change another person’s view, attitude or behavior. That is why systems like Klout are so important to marketers. For the first time in history we can proximate (not necessarily quantify) word of mouth influence. That is a huge insight. Revolutionary. So no matter what you think of Klout from a personal standpoint, you need to pay attention from a business standpoint because it is an important development – a step toward measurement that will improve steadily.

To refresh what I said in the Klout blog last week, I defined influence as “authoritative, authentic, and accessible leadership.”

An opinion column in Advertising Age Feb. 28, 2011 by Greg Shove, founder and CEO of Halogen Media Group, said some pertinent things in his piece about influence metrics as they relate to traditional web publishing. I don’t want to take his opinions out of context, but he shares that Klout scoring is affecting online publishing; sites too large to be nimble and authentic are suffering. I’m fascinated with his remarks, pulled from his piece:

** “Being held to influence-measurement standards set by services such as Klout is the next blow that’s coming around the corner. Get ready for the next digital media bloodbath.

** Influence metrics will show that most big, blue-chip sites don’t have the same social influence that smaller, more authentic sites do.

** Though in its infancy, this shift to influence measurement will ultimately benefit publishers that cultivate and curate influence. I’d (Greg Shove) go so far as to call this ‘authentic media’ or the ‘authentic web,’ defined by the quality, passion and influence of their editorial and their audiences.”

Opinions about influence will vary as widely as the definitions I got to help me define public relations in the recent 15-post series done on this blog. I have invited my peers, with whom I engage every day, to provide their thoughts on defining influence.

Gini Dietrich, an extraordinary and impressive social media maven who blogs at Spin Sucks and will soon launch Spin Sucks Pro, says:

I define influence as a person or group of people who affect change around a product, service, industry, or cause. Your influencers are typically not the same as mine and vice versa. That’s why the issue of things like Klout doesn’t work because it’s not based on reality.

For instance, my Klout score is higher than Jay Leno’s, which is absolutely ridiculous because he is a household name and clearly has more influence. But, in certain circles (PR, especially), I definitely have more influence than Leno.

Finding your influencers takes a lot of hard work, time, commitment, and patience. There aren’t tools that effectively make it easy for you to find them. You have to research, dig, read, review, monitor, listen, and then do it all again to maintain the relationships. The only way to measure that is to benchmark what you are asking the influencers to do against your business goals. It’s the only way.

I’m eager and excited to see how this goes! With that comes a hearty thank you and sincere gratitude for your contributions here to make this blog come alive more each day. I appreciate everyone for visiting, sharing, and ‘raderie.

(Image: ShoutMeLoud)

Using Social Media to Launch Start-Up JD Match

04/21/2011 By Jayme Soulati

This is a brief story about how cool social media is and how it impacts public relations strategy to launch JD Match, a new online recruitment site for second-year law students, large law firms and law schools.

I’ve been working with Bruce MacEwen, Esq., an esteemed lawyer and highly credible legal consultant, and Janet Stanton, CEO of JD Match, who also are affiliated with Adam Smith, Esq., one of the most-respected online publications in the legal profession.

JD Match is an online recruiting site using a proprietary algorithm that will match second-year law students’ preferred law firms with law firms’ preferred students. The start-up is designed to address the flawed on-campus interviewing process during which the nation’s largest law firms spend thousands of dollars to recruit the best law students from the best colleges of law.

For several months, Soulati Media has developed the public relations and social media strategy with JD Match. The goal was to earn a story prior to noon on Monday, April 18, 2011 in the Wall Street Journal Law Blog prior to the April 20, 2011 live launch of the new website. Three other tier-one outlets would be called and given the embargoed news release in the afternoon of April 18.

The rest of the strategy for the April 20, 2011 launch of JD Match included:

The primary press release and customer story (K&L Gates, one of the largest law firms in the U.S., is the first charter member to sign with JD Match) would hit PR Newswire on April 20, 2011, and the Internet press release would hit via PR Web once the site went live, approximately 36 hours later.

At the time of this writing (11 p.m. ET, April 21, 2011), JD Match has not gone live. Leading up to today, here’s what’s unfolded since Monday, four days ago:

1. An excellent story appeared in the Wall Street Journal Law Blog via Ashby Jones on April 18, as planned.

2. Above the Law posted a brief mention of the news on April 18 by 5 p.m.

3. The American Lawyer editor-in-chief declined the story only to have his reporting staff contact JD Match for an interview the next day (they had seen the Wall Street Journal Law Blog post). The result was a wonderful Q&A with Bruce MacEwen you can read here. And, prior to this story running, AmLaw Daily developed a Facebook poll asking whether people think JD Match is going to change the face of associate recruiting.

4. The ABA Journal posted a lengthy story about JD Match on April 19. Its reporter had also read the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.

5. 3 Geeks and a Law Blog published a story and pushed it out on its syndicated service, to Twitter, and subscribers.

6. A student posted a question and blog post on LexisNexis Communities about JD Match.

7. A question was posed and answered by several folks on Quora about JD Match on April 19.

8. There are numerous students posting commentary on forums and blogs.

9. Because the site is not live yet, a contact form was created to capture visitors based on the “early news.” There have been close to 500 people who registered with an email address requesting a note when the site goes live.

10. Many people are communicating and commenting via Twitter and Facebook. My challenge was to tweet under the radar with a profile that said “coming soon.” Soulati Media tweeted that way for two months with the goal of earning 75 legal vertical followers; we succeeded.

Here’s some other interesting tidbits about this story:

*No news release has been distributed on any wire services (traditional or online).

*The exclusive was given to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, and Bloomberg was disappointed they didn’t get the exclusive.

*From a single blog post in the nation’s top law blog, all the activity above has rolled out.

*Adam Smith Esq. posted a blog thanking its team who helped launch JD Match.

*More stories appear daily, and Google Alerts and Trackur are set up to secure the stories.

The wealth and breadth of exposure for JD Match without issuing a news release to the industry has been fantastic to watch unfold. We’ve not seen a traditional story appear in a printed outlet; the stories have all been online. Once the news is formally launched on the wire and via online distribution, after the site goes live, we’ll see how we handle the next wave.

Meanwhile, follow JD Match @JDMatch and on Facebook and LinkedIn (still under development). (When you get there, please say hello to yours truly…)

Klout: The Influence of Influence

04/20/2011 By Jayme Soulati

Everyone says you need a goal when engaging social media. Two years ago, when I started tweeting I had no earthly clue where my journey would take me. As a public relations practitioner always seeking the next trend, technology, or new practice, I had to launch into Twitter because everyone was talking about it. My Facebook page is relatively young, but it’s growing, and I need to give it more TLC.

It took me awhile to earn my stride and slowly my goals took shape. It was never to monetize; after all my products are my words, strategic counsel and educating the profession and business about my passion (PR, if you haven’t guessed by now).

My goal was to be an influencer. There have been so many blog posts written about influence. What exactly does that mean? In my opinion, I like to think it’s authoritative, authentic and accessible leadership.

Let me explain a bit; there are influencers who encase themselves in their glass houses and rarely respond to tweets or questions posed on a blog or Facebook. These people are inaccessible. Being authoritative comes with seasoning. Having an opinion and presenting it genuinely implies authentic authority. Blogging allows for opinion, and comments create accessibility to the blogger. Being authoritative could also be considered arrogant, and that’s not a positive characteristic.

And then came Klout. I have only looked at my score 3 times ever; most recently over the weekend because someone mentioned scores were rising after Social Slam. I had a score of 52, and this weekend it is 60. It says I am an influencer, and that means I have attained my phase one goal.

What’s interesting about Klout is the detail and quantity of information available about your social media activity. I have not heard of anyone putting emphasis on Klout scoring for people hunting for a gig or being considered for a speaking position, have you?

But the more people jockey for position in social media and claim expertise, I’m thinking Klout is going to have greater influence defining who the influencers truly are. Will this become an authentic rating of the influencers? Should it?

I haven’t looked at others’ Klout analytics and I don’t know if I can dissect the data for other people as deeply as my own analysis, but this score may just become the defacto measurement system to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Here are some thoughts for you:

1. What are your professional social media goals?

2. What is your Klout baseline (your score prior to working on increasing it?)

3. Examine your social media behavior; do you ping from blog to blog and comment excessively?

4. When you blog, are your topics focused and do they command any comments? It takes awhile to find a voice; it’s helpful to have a year of blogging before things take off.

5. Are you active on Facebook or do you refuse to let social media control your every waking hour?

6. Is your Twitter stream littered with topics and Tweeps who don’t advance your goals?

7. Are you following a disproportionate number of Tweeps compared to followers? I was just introduced to Tweepi; it’s a wonderful tool to weed out those you followed who did not follow you back.

8. Have you latched onto a rising star and are you retweeting their content to your stream?

9. Is the content you publish from tweets to blogs and comments authoritative rather than just a few words in reply?

10. At the end of the day are you being you?

You may regard much of this as bunk, and it very well may be; however when I see an analytical tool that can track my online behavior that also points to places I may improve, it is certainly worth more than a passing nod. If, that is, your goal is to become an influencer.

(Image: SocialFresh)

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