soulati.com

Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

Soulati-'TUDE!

Define Influence with Goals, Trust, Behavior, Motivation

By

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

By

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!

****

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.

****

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?

By

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.

****************

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?

By

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)