SlideShare una empresa de Scribd logo
1 de 18
Descargar para leer sin conexión
COMMUNITY EBOOK   /   JANUARY 2011   /   www.radian6.com 1 888 6radian




        Written by            CHUCK HEMANN, LAUREN VARG
                              and TERESA BASICH
                                                       AS




                                                                         Copyright © 2011 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                             DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




                                                            or the influence we have in our day-to-day
                                                            offline lives.
   CHAPTER 1:

                                                            Brian Solis, principal of FutureWorks, a
   DEFINING SOCIAL
                                                            digital and social media communications
                                                            agency based in the Silicon Valley, has defined
   MEDIA INFLUENCE
   In the business sector of social                         influence as:

   media, agencies, vendors, and
   successful enterprises rail en
                                                            …The ability to cause desirable and


   masse about the benefits of
                                                            measurable actions and outcomes.

                                                            That definition feels almost a bit calculating,

   building relationships with brand
                                                            doesn’t it? But when you really think about it,
                                                            this is a fantastic definition of what influence
   “influencers” to gain a strong                           encompasses. Whether the outcomes we
   foothold on the social web. “Your                        want are inherently good or bad makes no

   influencers are your best brand
                                                            difference – we want them, and to influence is
                                                            to encourage the actions that drive our desired
   representatives, “ we say. “Those                        outcomes.

   people have the highest ability to
   impact the purchasing behavior of
                                                            What is online influence?


   your greater brand community, “
                                                            On web-based social networks, influence is
                                                            no different than the definition stated above,
   we preach. And that’s all true.                          although there are nuances of online influence
                                                            that organizations should consider as they
   But what, exactly, do we mean when we talk               strive to identify their “influencers” and create
   about social media influence? How can you,               their own influence strategies.
   as a company, find the right group of people –
   large or small – to make that desired impact             • Influence moves much quicker through the
   on your business? In this paper we’ll strive               social web than it does in the offline world.
   to clearly define influence as it pertains to              Why? Because of the immediate and vast
   the social web, identify why social influence              exposure people and businesses can garner
   matters to businesses, and identify some                   on the Internet.
   strong metrics and approaches for selecting
                                                            • Stances and influencer status can change
   and interacting with a group of brand
                                                              quickly because of a single person’s
   influencers that make sense for your company.
                                                              experience and accompanying online
                                                              commentary. Influence is truly fluid; much
                                                              like trust, for businesses at least, influence
                                                              takes work to develop and can be easily lost.
   What is Influence?

   At the simplest level, influence is the ability to
   impact a person or thing in ways that inspire
   action. Influence is very much about cause and           • The outcomes of online influence can be
   effect, and that truth applies across the board,           easier to identify than offline influence
   whether we’re talking about online influence               because we can easily access a larger pool of
                                                              reactions than we’d be able to offline.



www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)        community@radian6.com               Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                            DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   The essence of influence is the same no matter          Another example? Graco’s efforts to
   where it’s employed or experienced. The
   reactions to that influence, though, and the
                                                           connect and become involved with the

   gap between the cause and effect of an act of           In an effort to develop a strong relationship
                                                           influential online parenting community.

   influence are the things that seem to be most           with this community, Graco organized Graco
   subject to nuance.                                      Get-Together events in which they met
                                                           key influential bloggers to learn about the
                                                           community itself and slowly integrate their
                                                           brand into the mix. They then launched
   Can online influence drive business?

   The reason all this clarification is so important       the GracoBaby blog to enable two-way
   is that influence, when clearly understood and          communication between the organization and
   well applied, can be a great boon to businesses.        community.
   Empowering your loyal customers and fans
   to share the experiences they’ve had with               Although the Graco case study is a bit old,
   your brand(s) and products with their social            the fundamental pieces of it are still highly
   networks is the foundation of word-of-mouth             relevant to today’s influencer relations efforts.
   marketing. It also builds trust around your             And we’ll talk about those fundamental pieces
   brand and bolsters your company reputation.             next.

   Influence is a two-way street, of course. There
   are companies out there also taking the stance
                                                           So, what, exactly, makes up influence, and

   of “influencee,” letting their customers and
                                                           how can we use it?

   fans impact the direction of their products and         Influence as a noun is made up of a few
   services.                                               different aspects, and openly demonstrating
                                                           these aspects on- and/or offline is key to
                                                           making strong connections with the people
                                                           you want to influence and, ultimately, impact.
   For example…

   TurboTax’s Inner Circle community. The
   Inner Circle is a large community of TurboTax           • Trust – Trust is the foundation of influence.
   users who have been selected as product beta              The only way people connect with each
   testers. These folks provide feedback on the              other is by trusting that they’ve been
   product, rate and comment on new proposed                 accepted and will be treated fairly. Of course,
   features, and ultimately contribute to the                acceptance and fairness are relative, but
   annual improvement of the TurboTax software               we’re trying to break this into simple terms
   suite. At the end of each year, TurboTax                  that we can all understand and use. Identify
   incorporates 35 community-suggested                       how your community establishes trust and
   features into its product to offer a consistently         acceptance and work from there.
   improved piece of software.
                                                           • Authority – If you know what you’re saying
   Intuit, parent company of TurboTax,                       and doing, people will listen and take heed.
   recognized the potential behind incorporating             This isn’t about all expounding expertise,
   attentive, engaged customers into the fold                per se – although that’s a big part of it – it’s
   of their business model, and has done so                  also about having and demonstrating strong
   successfully with its Inner Circle community.             beliefs that resonate within people and steer
                                                             them in directions they want to go.




www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)       community@radian6.com                Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                             DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   • Value – Again, value is relative here, but             Here’s the short of it:
     it’s an essential piece of influence. To have
     any impact on a person you need to provide             Popularity: Being widely known.
     some sort of value to them. By providing
     value you create a positive benefit for                Influence: Being able to inspire action with or
     people. That’s it, really.                             without a large following.

   • Connection – People are willing to act on              Yes, these definitions are a bit oversimplified,
     behalf of others if they feel the benefit of           but they’re quick and useful takes on
     doing so outweighs the cost. While trust,              popularity and influence. One is inherently
     authority, and value are all important pieces          about inspiring action, while the other is not.
     of influence, a mutual connectivity or bond            For the sake of education and eye opening,
     between the influencer and influencee is the           though, let’s get a little grittier with the
     glue that binds.                                       differences.

   To influence anyone, you must build trust,               People who are popular are known by name
   establish authority, deliver value, and form a           and possibly reputation, but not necessarily
   mutual connection with them. Those who have              by their connections with individuals. In the
   become influential within specific networks              online world, these people’s networks are
   have fostered all these things with all those            comprised largely of weak ties rather than
   networks, and all of it is tailored to each              close relationships. Those who perceive
   network.                                                 this popularity think the popular folk are
                                                            entertaining, the life of the party, and their
   Note that, as a business, you will have to               attention is often caught by what these people
   develop these things with your selected list of          say and do.
   influencers to get them on your side. You must
   work to connect with them on these levels to             When it comes to moving others to act on their
   gain their cooperation. And before you do any            behalf for a specific cause or purpose, though,
   of that, you must identify who the right people          the power of the popular folk diminishes.
   are for your business to connect with, what              These popular people, while amusing, haven’t
   principles and beliefs resonate with them, and           built a mutual trust, proved their authority in
   how they define value. For the purposes of               any subject, or provided substantial value to
   this paper, we’ll be focusing on that first major        their network. Most importantly, they haven’t
   piece – identifying your influencers. But before         developed a mutual bond with those who
   we do that, let’s address this tricky thing called       make up their social graph.
   popularity.
                                                            Capturing the attention of your network isn’t
                                                            the same as moving them to do something.

                                                            Influential folks, however, can inspire action.
   What about popularity? Does it matter?

   Originally, we were going to dedicate an entire
                                                            We should note here that influence is powerful
   chapter to the difference between influence
   and popularity, but, after doing some research
                                                            According to an HP Labs study on influence and
   and some thinking, we realized the discussion
                                                            no matter the size of someone’s network.

                                                            passivity in social media, the size of a person’s
   around this particular facet of the topic of
   influence doesn’t need to be nearly as long.
                                                            ability to cause an effect. So it makes no
                                                            social graph is weakly linked to this person’s




www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)        community@radian6.com                Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                           DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   difference if a person has 100 friends or 1,000        traffic to your website, the role these metrics
   friends linked to them via social networks;            play in defining your business’ performance is
   if they have done those things that connect            under some question.
   people to them in meaningful, moving ways,
   they will influence the behavior of their              Within this argument, there’s a camp of
   network.                                               people who believe true ROI is really the only
                                                          performance metric companies care about.
   Both popularity and influence are useful tools         In a widely viewed presentation, brand and
   for business, but to make the most of them, you        marketing management consultant Olivier
   must be clear on what each tool impacts and            Blanchard outlined several truths about
   what general sorts of results each will deliver.       social media ROI, his primary argument being
                                                          that these softer metrics are not ROI and that
                                                          ROI is purely a financial calculation.
   Popularity begets awareness, but influence
   begets action.

   Now that we’ve shared the theoretical side             Blanchard is not wrong, but neither is the
   of influence, let’s get into the fast and hard         camp of people utilizing softer metrics to
   conversation of measuring influence. What              measure impact. Recently, Amber Naslund,
   are the metrics best suited for identifying            VP of Social Strategy at Radian6, outlined the
   influence? Is there a hard metric that                 “13 Truths About Social Media,” arguing that
   applies across the board in every influencer           there is more to social media measurement
   identification program? Is influence even              and success than ROI.
   measurable in numeric form? Well, we’re
   getting to that.                                       Whether you are using hard metrics, like
                                                          a pure ROI calculation, or are willing to
                                                          subscribe to softer metrics for measuring
                                                          success, the reality is that we’re far from
                                                          solving this riddle. In fact, some of the
                                                          issues that have plagued traditional media
    CHAPTER 2:
   THE BATTLE                                             measurement are now starting to show their
                                                          faces in social media marketing. However,
   BETWEEN SOFT                                           that’s the subject of another eBook.

   AND HARD METRICS                                       We believe the answer to the soft and hard
                                                          metrics question lands somewhere in the
   The debate about whether or                            middle of these two extremes. We’re guessing
   not we should be using hard or                         that your mother probably taught you the

   soft metrics is one of the hottest
                                                          principle of “everything in moderation,” right?
                                                          Well, much of that holds true for social media
   within social media marketing                          marketing. The best approaches are looking

   circles. You’ve likely seen plenty of
                                                          at ways to truly capture ROI while using softer
                                                          metrics to outline behavioral changes.
   skepticism around the role of soft metrics in
   measuring the impact of social media. Whether          Unsurprisingly, there are also questions
   we’re talking about the change in share of             about using one or the other type of metric
   voice/conversation, a rise in the number of            exclusively to define influence. Do quantitative
   searches about your brand, or an increase in




www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)      community@radian6.com               Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                           DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   metrics even matter? Do qualitative metrics            This is an important thing for brands to keep
   introduce unnecessary bias? Does the                   in mind: One metric or even one group of
   introduction of qualitative metrics make               metrics cannot tell you the entire influence
   influencer analysis inherently NOT scientific?         story. Numbers themselves cannot be viewed
   Is a scientific analysis of influencers within a       in isolation. The example we gave above is a
   topical area important for brands? What’s the          perfect case study. It isn’t enough to look at a
   ideal balance between automation and human             blog’s inbound links and consider that blogger
   intervention?                                          influential. In addition to inbound links, we
                                                          should be thinking about total visitors, unique
   Let’s take a second to try and answer these            visitors, inbound links, number of comments
   questions.                                             per post, number of retweets per post, and
                                                          that’s just naming a few metrics. You can
                                                          quickly fall down the metrics rabbit hole if
                                                          care is not paid to what metrics matter most to
   Using strictly quantitative metrics to

                                                          you and your brand. This is where qualitative
   define influence

   How much of a person’s online influence                factors must come into play.
   can we determine based entirely by their
   numbers? Does a person who has 10,000
   followers have greater influence than someone
   who has 5,000? What about a person who
                                                          The role of automation

                                                          How much or little an influencer identification
   writes a blog and has 20,000 inbound links             program should be automated is another hotly
   versus someone else who has 10,000? What               debated question. There are a number of tools
   if we built an algorithm that looks at these           that help you automate the process including
   strictly quantitative factors for a person’s           Klout, Tweet Level, Twitter Grader and
   online presence? Would anyone buy the final            Technorati. These applications give you the
   output?                                                numbers you need, and then you can input
                                                          them into a document to track which people
   In all honesty, numbers have been critical             you deem influential.
   since long before we were even talking about
   Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and the            The “scores” these sites present are well
   rest of the online universe. Establishing how          reasoned in their own right, but they present
   many people you could potentially reach with           brands with three specific challenges:
   a certain action (more on reach coming up)
   is something the traditional public relations/         • The scores aren’t truly “online” influence
   communications world has struggled with                  measures – Most of these online solutions
   from the beginning. However, just because                are providing a score based on one or only
   you have 10,000 followers on Twitter and I               a couple of online channels. A person’s
   only have 5,000 doesn’t mean you are more                online influence is much more than his or
   influential than I am. In a broader context              her influence on Twitter. What if I have a
   than just Twitter, just because you have the             YouTube channel, as well? Or a blog? Or
   opportunity to reach more people online                  what if I actively participate within an
   doesn’t make you more influential. Its how               open LinkedIn community? Shouldn’t I get
   those numbers come together that explains                credit for my entire online presence? The
   how influential a person could or couldn’t be            answer is clearly yes, but, until one of these
   to a brand.                                              tools develops a score that incorporates a




www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)      community@radian6.com               Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                            DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




      person’s entire online presence, the scores          technology right up until the point when you
      must be considered only for the channel in           are trying to nail down your final influencer
      which they are measuring.                            list. Until an online tool incorporates the
                                                           above, use those sites as more of an “FYI” than
   • Relevance – More on this in a second, but             anything else and develop your own list of
     these online tools are not determining                metrics.
     whether or not a persons’ Twitter presence
     is relevant for a particular brand. Take social
     media marketing expert Chris Brogan’s
                                                           The role of qualitative analysis

     Klout score for example. He has a score               This discussion could very easily be called “The
     of 84 on Klout. If you spend only a little            role of the analyst in influencer identification.”
     time there you’d realize that’s a very high           Where does a human come into play when you
     score. Yes, Chris is probably influential on          are defining who is influential for your brand?
     Twitter, but ask yourself this very important         The answer, quite simply, is everywhere. It’s
     question – has Chris written anything about           why a successfully developed approach to
     your brand or about a related topic area that         influencer identification that combines human
     you care about? If the answer is no, then             intervention with quantitative metrics will
     should he be included on your influencer              always win over something that appears to be
     list?                                                 totally automated or strictly quantitative.

   • No insight into the “black box” – There               So where does the analyst, or brand manager,
     are many influencer “algorithms” out there.           or anyone trying to develop an influencer
     Putting aside whether they are good or bad            list come into play? There are three very
     for a second, we tend to have very little             important roles of the analyst:
     insight into what goes into the final output.
     Now, nobody is asking these companies or              • Normalizing the data – We mentioned
     firms to disclose the “secret sauce,” but we            above that there is not one single metric,
     should be able to piece together how you                regardless of channel, that can be used to
     came up with the score you did. If we can’t,            define influence. We cannot look at just
     the number has to be taken with a grain of              total visits and consider a blog influential.
     salt.                                                   Similarly with Twitter followers. After a
                                                             person or team gathers the appropriate
   Whether or not you can use one of these tools             metrics, a process of normalizing the data
   to determine influencers for your brand is a              must occur, otherwise comparing inbound
   separate discussion than the one detailing                links to, say, number of comments on a blog
   if the process of pulling metrics for your                post would not make sense. The scales are
   influencer identification program should be               wildly different. Similarly, for your brand,
   automated or not. The answer to that question             it might make more sense to place more
   is clearly yes, and as much as you can automate           weight on total visits than inbound links.
   you should. The best influencer algorithms                That’s a call only a human can make.
   combine lots of metrics across lots of different
   platforms, and pulling those all by hand is             • Determining relevance – We’ll be spending
   labor intensive. It’s been done, but that process         more time talking about relevance in the
   is inefficient and it leaves a lot of opportunity         influencer equation later on, but this is
   for human error. We recommend using                       likely the most critical part of influencer




www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)       community@radian6.com                Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                             DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




      identification. Technorati publishes a list of        overly simplistic, getting started with social
      the Top 100 blogs based on the Technorati             media is hard.
      Authority score. The search conducted to
      find that site took literally one minute to           Anyone who tells you it’s easy to create a blog,
      complete. You could do that also, but take            Twitter, or YouTube presence is misleading
      a look at the list of sites. If you are a brand       you. Creating the site or account is easy, yes,
      manager working for a midsize business-               but drawing in and engaging with the right
      to-business brand in Topeka, Kansas, or               people is very hard. Heck listening to, let alone
      someone representing said brand, does                 engaging in, the right conversations is hard
      Gizmodo really matter to you? Probably not.           enough. A strong influencer identification
      Now, if you were a large technology brand             program helps partially solve the “boil
      then Gizmodo would matter a great deal.               the ocean” conundrum of social media
      We haven’t yet encountered a computer                 engagement.
      smart enough to determine brand relevancy
      completely. A human must be involved to               Compete estimates that there were
      evaluate a site’s influence.                          approximately 175 million people who visited
                                                            Twitter.com in November. Taking a number
   • Segmenting your influencer list – Here is              like 175 million and turning it into 50 easily
     what most consultants won’t tell you – not             allows a brand to get its head around who
     everyone on your influencer list would be              could be a potential outreach target and who’d
     categorized as an “outreach” target. You               make it onto the “Listen to These Folks” list.
     could work in an industry that’s heavily
     dominated by forum conversations. Anyone               So, let’s get back to the question at hand:
     who’s tried to reach forum participants                Do brands want something that’s totally
     before can tell you that it is very difficult          automated? Our answer to this question would
     to even enter the forum as a brand.                    have to be no. Brands are comforted by the
     However, just because you can’t engage                 role of a human in the analysis. They generally
     with them, doesn’t mean you can’t listen to            trust that a person understands the brand and
     conversations. Use a tool like Radian6 to              the brand’s goals more so than a computer
     monitor conversations in that forum. You’d             ever could. Not only that, but an influencer
     be surprised at the market intelligence                list only becomes useful when it’s relevant
     you’ll acquire by just listening. No amount            and properly segmented to meet brand goals.
     of automation is going to segment the list             These are two things that a computer cannot
     for you.                                               readily achieve. Will we reach a stage where
                                                            the Klouts of the world are more a trusted
                                                            resource for brands? Absolutely, but we aren’t
                                                            there yet.
   Do brands want totally automated
   influencer identification?

   Do brands want targeted influencer lists?
   The answer is absolutely yes! Do they want
                                                            Bringing qualitative and quantitative

   something that’s purely automated? Our
                                                            metrics together

   experience to date has been absolutely                   You’ve no doubt already figured out that
   not. This gets to the root of the influencer             our approach to influencer identification
   identification question – why do brands try              incorporates both quantitative and qualitative
   and do it in the first place? At the risk of being       analysis. We want to develop our list of




www.radian6.com    1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)       community@radian6.com               Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                             DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   metrics, outline our goals for the list, create          to help you explain someone’s total online
   the list, segment by relevance, and then                 footprint.
   segment by potential use (e.g., listening only,
   engagement, outreach, etc.). We want to                  The approach to mapping and defining online
   automate everything we can automate then                 influence must take into account metrics
   use a human to ferret out the final list.                that can be bucketed under the following
                                                            categories: reach, relevance, and syndication.
   If your methodology is sound and the person              It’s important to note here that we aren’t
   conducting the analysis for you has enough               just talking about the reach, relevance, and
   brand knowledge, then the final list will be             syndication of the outlet. Rather, our focus is
   a true representation of who is influential              on those three buckets as applied to the outlet
   for your brand online. If not, the list created          and the individual doing the talking. That’s
   could bear fruit, but will it create “buzz” in the       ultimately what we care most about, right?
   markets that care most about your product?
   Well, maybe. But do you want to create a list            Social media marketing is about engaging
   of influencers, reach out to them, and have              with people, is it not? We’re not going to be
   little to show for it? In other words, what’s the        engaging with The Huffington Post, or New York
   ROI of your influencer identification program?           Times, or USA Today, right? We’re going to be
   Create the rigor, develop the list, use the list,        engaging with bloggers or reporters at those
   and drive ROI. That’s what everybody should              outlets, first and foremost. We’ll be talking at
   be striving to do.                                       length in this section about the characteristics
                                                            of each of these buckets and how you bring
                                                            them together.

   CHAPTER 3:                                               Reach

                                                            It’s likely easiest to start here because this
                                                            is where most of our focus tends to be. We
   THE INTERPLAY
                                                            want to know how many eyeballs a channel
                                                            could potentially reach. We tend to focus our
   BETWEEN BRAND
   RELEVANCE, REACH,                                        attention on the New York Times because its
                                                            online presence is very large – 65 million
   AND SYNDICATION                                          total visits in November according to
                                                            Compete. It’s a similar story with USA Today, or
   Of everything we’re talking about                        The Huffington Post, or Washington Post. They
   in this paper, we hope you take                          reach a lot of people.

   away the fact that influence in                          However, if we’re living by the theory that
   social media is comprised of more                        we’re focused on reaching an individual at one

   than just reach. Similarly, influence
                                                            of these outlets, how does taking into account
                                                            only that site’s Web traffic really help us? The
   is mapped out by using more than just one                answer is, it doesn’t. It’s important to take that
   metric. Or even five metrics. Or even 10                 into account, yes, but we also need to know
   metrics. Ideally, that map is constructed by             how much traffic for that site can be attributed
   bringing together the best set of metrics                to a single author. This is where everybody’s




www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)        community@radian6.com                Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                              DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   favorite subject, math, comes into play.                  viewed (or has the potential to be viewed) by
   Obviously there is more to the reach part of              many people is even better. But, how widely
   the equation than total visits, so what are some          dispersed that content is could be considered
   other metrics you could consider?                         the Holy Grail.

                                                             Not to continue on too long with Chris Brogan
                                                             but his blog is a good gauge for demonstrating
   On the outlet side:     On the author side:

                                                             this idea of syndication. His blog receives
                                                             hundreds of thousands of views according to
   Total visits            Total posts authored


                                                             Compete, and his site has been linked more
                           (or tweets, blog posts,


                                                             than 400,000 times according to Yahoo! Site
                           articles)


                                                             Explorer. Those are amazing numbers, but
   Unique visits

                                                             they’re only one part of the equation. Take
   Inbound links           Inbound links to the

                                                             a look at how often his content is shared on
                           author’s posts

                                                             Twitter. If you look at his recent posts, they’ve
                                                             been retweeted a significant number of times.
   Inbound links           Unique people reached


                                                             Those hundreds of thousands of views just
   Organic keywords        Total people reached


                                                             grew exponentially simply by someone picking
   Now, it’s important to note two things when
                                                             up his content and syndicating it.
   you’re evaluating which reach metrics you
   want to use:                                              So, what other metrics can you use to define
                                                             syndication? Again, this is similar to reach
   • The relative weight of each metric will
                                                             in that we’re focused on outlet and author
     change for each brand. There’s a lot of
                                                             syndication.
     science that can be applied to the online
     influencer process, but nothing can replace
     a human looking at the data and thinking
     about what matters most for the brand.
                                                             On the outlet side:       On the author side:


     How you weight each of these things will
                                                             Google results for the    Average number of

     change based on those goals.
                                                             outlet name               times a headline is
                                                                                       retweeted/headline

   • How much weight you give to the author
                                                             Google blog results for   indexed, etc…

     metrics versus the outlet metrics will also
                                                             the outlet name           Largest number of

     change. There’s no secret sauce here. This is
                                                                                       times a headline is

     another place where your analyst will come
                                                             Google news results for   retweeted/headline


     in handy. How much weight you give to the
                                                             the outlet name           indexed, etc…


     author versus the outlet is obviously critical
                                                                                       Number of times the


     to the final output. As a general rule of
                                                                                       author’s name


     thumb, remember that we’re most focused
                                                                                       appears in Google


     on reaching individuals, not outlets.
                                                                                       Number of times the
                                                                                       author’s name
                                                                                       appears in Google plus
                                                                                       the outlet
   Syndication

   In the spirit of reaching as many people as
                                                                                       Number of times the

   we can, syndication plays a critical role in
                                                                                       author’s name appears

   the online influencer equation. Creating
                                                                                       in Google plus the brand


   content is great, but creating it on a site that is



www.radian6.com    1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)        community@radian6.com               Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                                DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list but a             together. Skip relevancy and you’ll have come
   place where you can get started. We’re sure                 up with an interesting list that may or may not
   you can come up with your own syndication                   be actionable for your brand.
   metrics. You may realize that only a couple of
   these are relevant for your brand. Whichever
   method you choose, the same key points
                                                               Bringing this all together

   we mentioned above for reach apply here:                    You don’t need to spend much time reading
   The relative weight of each metric and how                  this to understand that there are a significant
   much weight you put on the author’s score                   amount of data points here. With a large
   versus the outlet’s score will vary. That’s not             number of data points comes a lot of data
   something we can provide you. Know, however,                capture, and with a lot of data capture comes
   that everybody has their individual methods                 the need for additional resources to gather,
   for bringing these things together.                         crunch, and then develop the output. This is
                                                               further evidence that a dedicated analyst or
                                                               team of analysts is critical to completing an
                                                               influencer identification program. So what are
   Relevance

   This is probably the most important factor                  some other things you need to keep in mind?
   in the online influence equation. As we
   discussed in the previous section, knowing                  • Date range for analysis – This should
   reach and syndication metrics are nice but if                 go without saying, but capturing the
   a person is not creating relevant content for                 appropriate amount of data across these
   the brand, how could he or she be considered                  data points (or others you might discover/
   an influencer? Honestly, he or she just can’t                 create) is critical. You don’t want to grab
   be. Without relevance what you likely have is                 only the last month’s worth of content,
   the same kind of traditional media list you’ve                because that introduces a few different
   been working from for years. We think we can                  issues including whether or not one event
   safely say that everyone would like to come up                is unduly influencing the final output. The
   with something more targeted, right? As with                  ideal scenario has you capturing 12 months’
   the other metrics we outlined, with relevance                 worth of data and extending your range
   we’re also focused on author and outlet                       from there. Whatever your date range may
   relevance. What are some metrics you could                    be, it is important to be consistent. Don’t
   use?                                                          grab six months worth of data for Twitter
                                                                 and then only 3 months for blogs.

                                                               • This is just a snapshot in time – Even
   On the outlet side:         On the author side:

                                                                 though you’ve captured a critical mass
                                                                 of data (ideally 12 months of it), the final
   Total mentions of a topic   Total mentions of a topic


                                                                 output still is a snapshot in time. Whatever
   Percentage of posts that    Percentage of posts that

                                                                 list you develop will need to be consistently
   mention a topic             mention a topic

                                                                 refreshed. The online space changes in a
   Continuing on the broken record theme, it’s                   blink, and today’s number 10 influencer
   important to note that the relative weights of                may be number 50 three months from now.
   these metrics and the outlet-versus-author                    Decide how often you want to refresh your
   side will vary by brand. Relevancy, however,                  list when you are coming up with your plan
   is the key component of how this all comes                    of action for the project.




www.radian6.com    1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)          community@radian6.com              Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                            DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   • Ranking only matters so much – To the                 relevance. Without one of these pieces of
     point of this data being a snapshot in time,          the equation, you run the risk of creating an
     just because someone is a top influencer              influencer list that’s not necessarily reflective
     now doesn’t mean they will be three months            of your brand or the topic area at large.
     from now. Similarly, just because someone
     is number 10 today doesn’t mean they can’t
     become number one three months from
     now. Remember, after you’ve completed
     your list you’ll want to segment it by how
                                                           CHAPTER 4:
     you’re going to “use” that person. Are                INFLUENCE BY
     they “listening only?” Are they “direct
     engagement?” Are they “outreach in the
                                                           CHANNEL VS.
     form of a release?” The more you reach out
     to a person, the greater the likelihood that
                                                           INFLUENCE ACROSS
     their influencer “score” will change over a
     period of time.
                                                           THE SOCIAL WEB
   • A person can show up in multiple                      Television isn’t the same as
     categories – It’s critical to take into account       radio, which isn’t the same as the
                                                           newspaper. So, why would you
     a person’s entire online footprint. Capturing
     a person’s blog is great, but what about their
     Twitter footprint? What if they are blogging          think social media channels should
     in multiple places with relevant content?
                                                           be treated any differently? Twitter
                                                           is not the same as Facebook, which
     What if they are participating in a forum?
     You see the point here. A person can have
     scores across multiple channels, and that             is not the same as YouTube. Each
     should impact their overall online influence          social media channel has its own identity,
     in your list.                                         community, content, and influencers. And
                                                           there are countless social media channels
   • Relative weight of reach, syndication, and
                                                           outside the big three (Twitter, Facebook and
     relevance will vary – In this eBook we talk
                                                           YouTube). In fact, in this age, every person
     about how each metric could possibly be
                                                           could be viewed as his or her own network.
     weighed. The reality, though, is that how
                                                           Just like in traditional media, there will
     you weight each of the broader buckets
                                                           always be some crossover of channels, but it’s
     will change by brand. If you’re running a
                                                           dangerous to treat each community and set of
     campaign centered mostly on traditional
                                                           influencers the same.
     media, then maybe reach is most important
     to you. Either way, you’ll need to determine
     that after you’ve gathered all of the relevant
     (there’s that word again) data.
                                                           Building trust (and influence) with knowledge

                                                           According to a 2010 report by Forrester
                                                           analysts Augie Ray and Josh Bernoff, some
   Like we mentioned at the beginning of this              500 billion impressions about products and
   chapter, we want you to understand that                 services are created in social media each year.
   measuring and ranking influence online is               This is a massive pool of conversations over
   done by a combining reach, syndication, and             a multitude of social channels for people to




www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)       community@radian6.com                Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                             DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   derive influence. According to Ray and Bernoff,
   these impressions are split into two types
                                                            Content consumption and chatter varies

   of influence: (1) influence from people within
                                                            by channel

   social networks, and (2) influence created by            According to a study from online advertising
   posts across blogs, forums, and review sites.            network, Chitka, users’ interests and

   From this data, Ray and Bernoff concluded that           platform they’re using. The insights gleaned
                                                            expectations vary sharply depending on the

   the online impressions people make on each               from over 287,000 impressions depict nearly
   other regarding product and services are about           half (47%) of the traffic Twitter generates
   one fourth of the online advertising impression,         goes to news sites and that the only genre
   and that a small percentage of people generate           appearing in all five sites studied was celebrity
   80% of the impressions. We encourage you                 and entertainment.
   to download the Forrester report if you’re
   interested in learning more about the Forrester
   method of influencer analysis.

   All this research is to say that influence, no
   matter how you look at it, is built on credibility
   of knowledge. The Edelman Trust Barometer
   2010 found “informed publics place the most
   trust in expert spokespeople and information
   sources.” This past year has been one of
   economic uncertainty, and, while we’re still
   influenced by average folks like us, this type of
   influence has lost ground. Influence runs much
   deeper than how many followers a person or
   company may have, and lives in the knowledge
   transferred and received.




                                                            There’s no doubt we’re in the middle of a
                                                            Social Media Revolution, but the data is
                                                            changing rapidly as new channels appear,
                                                            disappear, unite, and reshape, as is the way
                                                            people are consuming media. It’s easy to be
                                                            overwhelmed by the amount of social media
                                                            statistics floating around. It’s important
                                                            that you look beyond the masses of data to
                                                            discover where your community is consuming
                                                            content and engaging in conversations that
                                                            are relevant to your organization’s goals and
                                                            objectives. Be your own case study. Monitor
                                                            and discover valuable insights from your
                                                            primary data to start building relationships in




www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)        community@radian6.com               Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                            DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   channels that will help you build and identify          Share of Conversation is a combination of a
   trust through shared knowledge.                         few metrics that we happen to think give you
                                                           some strong insight into how your online
                                                           activities are directly impacting your goals and
                                                           objectives. This metric helps you understand
   Share of Conversation

   When folks start to dive into social media they         not just the volume of buzz about you, but how
   tend to put all their effort into those channels
   with the potential for a lot of eyeballs. The
                                                           present and recognized you are among the

   problem with this tactic is that just gathering         with. In other words, how much you’re in front
                                                           conversations you want to be associated

   lots of eyeballs isn’t what actually matters, but       of the right eyeballs. In the case of this metric,
   rather gathering the right eyeballs and then            the hypothesis is that if you’re mentioned in
   driving them to perform a desired action.               relevant conversations, you’ll gain mindshare
                                                           and therefore increase the likelihood of
   When you talk in these terms be aware that
                                                           someone choosing you over a competitor in
   you’re looking at potential reach, not actual
                                                           the same market.
   reach, unless you can ensure that all of your
   friends or followers are logged in and viewing          Radian6’s CEO, Marcel Lebrun, blogged in
   your content on a given day (which is nearly            heavy detail the methodology for establishing
   impossible). There are some loose ideas about           your Share of Conversation metric, but the
   peak usage times and percentages for varying            high-level process looks like this:
   social networks, but getting actual reach
   numbers is going to be tough.                           • Set up a monitoring post for a topic, subject,
                                                             or market within which you want to be
   For example, 50% of active users log on to                talked about. For example, if you’re a non-
   Facebook on any given day, meaning only                   profit working in diabetes research, you
   half your fans are even likely to see your                might want to look at conversations around
   status updates, and that among the rest of the            “diabetes research,” “diabetes support,”
   posts they view. So, you might only be able to            or any number of subjects you’d like to be
   account for a 20%-30% view rate from your                 known/found for.
   total following.
                                                           • Within that topic, track and count the posts
   The web simply cannot be condensed to a                   that mention the topic(s) you’re interested
   single mass strategy, so it’s best to identify            during a specific time period. 30 days is
   relevant conversations to ensure you are                  generally a good window.
   participating in those channels with the right            (Metric 1: Total Conversation Posts per 30
   eyeballs (you should be able to get started               days.)
   with that process after reviewing the previous
   chapter).                                               • Then, track the posts that mention that
                                                             topic and mention you together during that
   Now, this topic might seem better suited for              same timeframe. (Metric 2: Total Brand/
   the measurement-focused sections of this                  Conversation Posts per 30 days.)
   eBook, but trust us that Share of Conversation
   and overall influence on the social web go              • Divide Metric 1 by Metric 2. The resulting
   hand in hand. One directly represents the                 percentage is your Share of Conversation.
   other, actually, and we’ll show you how.




www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)       community@radian6.com                Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                            DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   Take a look at Marcel’s post for more
   information about why this measurement
                                                           CHAPTER 4:
   really matters and has deeper value than just
   “how many people are talking about us”.
                                                           HUMAN
   Figuring out where you should be engaging
                                                           INTERVENTION
   starts with looking at where your audience
   currently exists. Your community will appear
                                                           VS. TOTALLY
   in a few places to start, or perhaps many if
   your organization is inherently social. You’ll be
                                                           AUTOMATED TOOLS
   able to identify exactly where that audience is         The age-old debate of man versus
                                                           machine is becoming more
   through your listening strategy.

   Keep in mind that you shouldn’t put effort              prevalent as the science fiction of
                                                           yesterday becomes today’s reality.
                                                           Maybe the Artificial Intelligence
   or resources into interacting on big social

   happens to be. Software companies, for
   networks if that’s not where your audience


                                                           we’re talking about now is
   example, are often mentioned on support
   forums or communities, thus showing a much
   larger portion of customer activity than, say,          not what we expected, but it’s
   Facebook. Just because certain social channels
   are more popular than others – or even more
                                                           definitely what we are working
   popular than other types of media – that                with and towards.
   doesn’t mean your market is there. Do your
   research before you commit to engaging on a             It’s unwise to think in extremes because
   particular network.                                     there’s no clear winner, or in this case, magic
                                                           button or algorithm. While social channels
   We know engagement can be a stick subject,              have brought to light conversations that
   especially when it comes to scaling those               brands just can’t afford to overlook, the
   efforts. How do you converse with hundreds              expectations of sustainable listening and
   or even thousands of folks on a regular basis           engagement have become a serious issue for
   and make sure the conversations you’re having           organizations to tackle and solve. It’s essential
   are relevant and useful to your business? Can           that organizations carefully think through
   any of that interaction be automated? And how           their plans for automation when creating
   does this all play into interacting with your           social media outreach strategies, especially
   influencers? That’s the next piece of the puzzle.       when approaching influencer outreach.

                                                           Interaction/automation as a mindset

                                                           Influence is really quite personal, right?
                                                           And we can all agree that influence is based
                                                           in finding a connection that permeates the
                                                           surface of general awareness and engagement.
                                                           The intent to develop deeper relationships
                                                           between organizations and communities is at
                                                           the heart of today’s business shift.



www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)       community@radian6.com                Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                          DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   Social media is now the conduit for valuable
   conversations that were once limited to private
                                                         out which relationships to concentrate our

   group discussion or shared through siloed
                                                         limited resources on. But our focus should

   feedback mechanisms. To establish what
                                                         always be on people, not technology. This

   aspects of their social media interactions can
                                                         has never been more evident than at times

   be automated, organizations must first craft an
                                                         like these.”
   influencer identification program and define          The processes and tools supporting our
   what is considered influential content within         interaction should remain where they
   their marketplace.                                    belong, in the background. In the case of the
                                                         Haiti tragedy, the function of donation and
   The goal of automation is not to fully replace        information gathering was not in the limelight,
   people with a computerized system, e.g.,              it was the global response that shined. The
   an unpaid employee, but allow people to               human connection came first and remains the
   have more time engaging in relevant and               foundation on which organizations need to
   meaningful conversations rather than sift             build their automated efforts.
   through endless channels, mountains of data,
   and noise. Automated processes help remove
   those inefficient and redundant functions and
                                                         Interaction/automation as a mechanism

   allow us to do what we do best: be human.             There is no all-encompassing mechanism or
   Influence should be built and guarded with            method to identify influence, influencers, or
   care, and it can only be created by humans, not       easily map your organization’s interactions
   computer algorithms.                                  with these people and communities. When you
                                                         start exploring that need to automate parts of
   Take, for example, the earthquake in Haiti            your organization’s social strategy, it’s best to
   in January 2010. Automation allowed                   first identify the most time-consuming, non-
   governments, non-profits, and ordinary                interaction-oriented tasks and separate them
   citizens to band together and streamline their        from those requiring real human interaction.
   activities, allowing one and all to focus on          As we said earlier, automation is meant to
   giving back to their fellow human beings. Brent       improve efficiency by assisting with repetitive
   Leary sums up how humans and machines                 functions, not replace all external interaction.
   worked together in this instance for the
   greater good:                                         As the social media space evolves we’re all
                                                         crafting the necessary rules of etiquette
                                                         and adapting them to changing community
                                                         expectations and knowledge. Unfortunately,
   “It’s important for us not to hide behind

                                                         even though we are adapting, there are several
   technology, but use it to better understand

                                                         tasks people and organizations are automating
   each other’s needs. It can be tempting

                                                         that need to be personalized instead.
   to substitute technology for a personal
   connection. Being human can be tough,
                                                         For instance, it’s best to avoid automating
   and time consuming, and gut-wrenching,
                                                         tasks in channels where your community is
   and taxing, and many other things. And
                                                         expecting direct and real human interaction
                                                         or you risk taking away from other areas
   there are times and instances where we do

                                                         of successful human-to-human reciprocity.
   need to utilize technology to make better

                                                         But if you can effectively mechanize some of
   decisions, and to get things done quickly and
   less expensively. We even need it to figure




www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)     community@radian6.com               Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                         DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




   those tasks you need completed, you’ll have            you can do to build on those expectations.
   more time and bandwidth to engage on a
   more personal level in those spaces where            • Manage Your Accounts: Not your
   interaction is expected.                               relationships. There is a time and a place for
                                                          scheduling tweets and posts, like if you’re
   Rather than focus on what not to automate,             releasing breaking news or you’ve identified
   let’s talk about the more productive uses for          a need for an FAQ-type response. However,
   automation when engaging with influencers              online social networks don’t thrive on
   and building your own influential content.             one-off blasts of info but rather a two-way
                                                          dialogue. Participating in these channels
   • Engage Actively: People won’t subscribe              immediately sets up the expectation that
     to your content or “listen” to what you have         you are listening and engaging. Establish
     to say if they believe the information or            proper expectations with your community
     conversation is being generated from the             if you plan on automating your social media
     faceless avatar of Artificial Intelligence.          coverage.
     There’s an expectation for real-time
     engagement in the social sphere that just          • Unify Your Communication Funnel:
     can’t be ignored or falsified, so meet that          Integrate social media interactions into your
     expectation head-on and get actual people            company’s existing communication and
     within your company talking with your                feedback platforms. Spread the word and
     external community.                                  keep track of those online conversations
                                                          from A-Z in one platform. These platforms
   • Personalize Sharing: As we explored in               already house a wealth of data from various
     the previous chapter, people consume and             channels. Harness the power of that
     communicate differently across all social            integrated data to discover insights and gain
     media channels. There are many tools out             an holistic view of your influencers and the
     there that give you the ability to post your         impact of your influence.
     content once and have it be distributed
     across multiple channels. While this kind of       By nature, social media channels foster open
     automation might increase efficiency and           and authentic engagement. Influence is
     productivity, it will come at the expense of       subjective and built up through how others
     being able to more personally connect with         view your interactions with those in the same
     your influencers, or even be considered            circle. If you were to start automating your
     influential within a specific community and/       responses, you’d lose credibility and work
     or channel.                                        directly against that widespread expectation
                                                        of real engagement. Artificial Intelligence will
   • Know Your Brand: There’s enough “Enough            never fully replicate a human reply or properly
     about me, now let’s talk about me” noise           address a need for human engagement, and, no
     on social networks, and you don’t need to          matter how well built, an algorithm just can’t
     add to that. See, feel, and live your brand        deliver an authentic and appropriate response
     through the eyes of your community. Avoid          to the various nuances of the human language.
     using automation to unleash a barrage of
     canned responses or self-promotion. Use
     these channels to discover what others find
     meaningful and influential and learn what




www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)    community@radian6.com               Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011
                                                          DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE




                                                           What makes those people or brands so
                                                           influential to you? What turns you off of a
    CHAPTER 6:
   THE WRAP-UP                                             person or company?


   We realize there are a lot of
                                                         • Give us a shout if any of this doesn’t make
                                                           sense. No, really. Email us at community@
   information and ideas in this                           radian6.com and we’ll make sure to answer
   eBook to absorb, and we highly                          your questions as best as we can.

   recommend you give yourself                           Influence is relative to your company and
   the time and mental space to                          marketplace, but we hope what’s been
                                                         outlined here will help you get a firmer grip on
   do so, because creating a truly                       how to approach using your ability to influence
   valuable influencer program that                      and that of your biggest fans to create positive

   includes the right metrics for your
                                                         results for your company. Please be in touch
                                                         and let us know what’s worked for you. We
   efforts and the right outreach                        always appreciate the feedback.

   tactics for your goals takes great
   understanding of what influence                       Find us on the web:

   is and how it works within your
   immediate community and
                                                         http://www.radian6.com

                                                         Follow us on Twitter:

   greater market.
                                                         http://www.twitter.com/radian6

                                                         Read the Blog:
   Here are some tips to help make this all a bit        http://www.radian6.com/blog
   more digestible:

   • Make sure that you read this eBook at least
     once without clicking any of the links. Links
     offer invaluable reference points, but they
     will inevitably break your focus and train of
     thought, making understanding all this a bit
     tougher.

   • Consider mapping and weighting your own
     influencer metrics as you read through
     Chapters 2 and 3. Just as practice. This
     doesn’t have to be something you submit to
     your team for review, but it’s worth getting
     into the practice.

   • Think about how you, as an individual,
     influence and are influenced by the people
     and brands you’ve brought into your life.




www.radian6.com   1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426)     community@radian6.com              Copyright © 2010 - Radian6

Más contenido relacionado

Destacado

Everything about Social Games
Everything about Social GamesEverything about Social Games
Everything about Social GamesCharles Pyo
 
USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO INFLUENCE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO INFLUENCE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR CHANGEUSING SOCIAL MEDIA TO INFLUENCE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO INFLUENCE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR CHANGESocial Change UK
 
Social Media Influence 2010: Alexandra Wheeler, Digital Director, Starbucks
Social Media Influence 2010: Alexandra Wheeler, Digital Director, StarbucksSocial Media Influence 2010: Alexandra Wheeler, Digital Director, Starbucks
Social Media Influence 2010: Alexandra Wheeler, Digital Director, StarbucksSustainly
 
Social Influence
Social InfluenceSocial Influence
Social InfluenceCJ F.
 
Understanding influence in social media
Understanding influence in social media Understanding influence in social media
Understanding influence in social media Pulsar Platform
 
3 Things to Focus on for Creating Engaging Multi-device eLearning
3 Things to Focus on for Creating Engaging Multi-device eLearning3 Things to Focus on for Creating Engaging Multi-device eLearning
3 Things to Focus on for Creating Engaging Multi-device eLearningUpside Learning Solutions
 
Social Media, Social Influence Marketing and Super Peers
Social Media, Social Influence Marketing and Super PeersSocial Media, Social Influence Marketing and Super Peers
Social Media, Social Influence Marketing and Super PeersMark Walmsley
 
"Blackfish" National 4/5 Media Documentaries Unit
"Blackfish" National 4/5 Media Documentaries Unit"Blackfish" National 4/5 Media Documentaries Unit
"Blackfish" National 4/5 Media Documentaries Unitccowan73
 
Why Having Friends At Work Is Important
Why Having Friends At Work Is Important Why Having Friends At Work Is Important
Why Having Friends At Work Is Important D B
 
How you can use social media to impact the world
How you can use social media to impact the worldHow you can use social media to impact the world
How you can use social media to impact the worldSean Si
 
Understanding Digital Student Development
Understanding Digital Student DevelopmentUnderstanding Digital Student Development
Understanding Digital Student DevelopmentPaul Brown
 

Destacado (15)

Everything about Social Games
Everything about Social GamesEverything about Social Games
Everything about Social Games
 
Global Brand Purpose
Global Brand PurposeGlobal Brand Purpose
Global Brand Purpose
 
USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO INFLUENCE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO INFLUENCE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR CHANGEUSING SOCIAL MEDIA TO INFLUENCE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO INFLUENCE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR CHANGE
 
Social Media Influence 2010: Alexandra Wheeler, Digital Director, Starbucks
Social Media Influence 2010: Alexandra Wheeler, Digital Director, StarbucksSocial Media Influence 2010: Alexandra Wheeler, Digital Director, Starbucks
Social Media Influence 2010: Alexandra Wheeler, Digital Director, Starbucks
 
Social Influence
Social InfluenceSocial Influence
Social Influence
 
Understanding influence in social media
Understanding influence in social media Understanding influence in social media
Understanding influence in social media
 
Adolescent Self-harm
Adolescent Self-harmAdolescent Self-harm
Adolescent Self-harm
 
3 Things to Focus on for Creating Engaging Multi-device eLearning
3 Things to Focus on for Creating Engaging Multi-device eLearning3 Things to Focus on for Creating Engaging Multi-device eLearning
3 Things to Focus on for Creating Engaging Multi-device eLearning
 
Social Media, Social Influence Marketing and Super Peers
Social Media, Social Influence Marketing and Super PeersSocial Media, Social Influence Marketing and Super Peers
Social Media, Social Influence Marketing and Super Peers
 
"Blackfish" National 4/5 Media Documentaries Unit
"Blackfish" National 4/5 Media Documentaries Unit"Blackfish" National 4/5 Media Documentaries Unit
"Blackfish" National 4/5 Media Documentaries Unit
 
Why Having Friends At Work Is Important
Why Having Friends At Work Is Important Why Having Friends At Work Is Important
Why Having Friends At Work Is Important
 
Blackfish
BlackfishBlackfish
Blackfish
 
How you can use social media to impact the world
How you can use social media to impact the worldHow you can use social media to impact the world
How you can use social media to impact the world
 
Understanding Digital Student Development
Understanding Digital Student DevelopmentUnderstanding Digital Student Development
Understanding Digital Student Development
 
Learning in a Multi-device World
Learning in a Multi-device WorldLearning in a Multi-device World
Learning in a Multi-device World
 

Más de Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Protecting Your Brand Message in Media Controlled by the Audience
Protecting Your Brand Message in Media Controlled by the AudienceProtecting Your Brand Message in Media Controlled by the Audience
Protecting Your Brand Message in Media Controlled by the AudienceSalesforce Marketing Cloud
 
Olympians vs. Food Infographic: Ready, Set, Eat!
Olympians vs. Food Infographic: Ready, Set, Eat!Olympians vs. Food Infographic: Ready, Set, Eat!
Olympians vs. Food Infographic: Ready, Set, Eat!Salesforce Marketing Cloud
 
Hungry Jack's Uses Social Media to Keep Customers Coming Back
Hungry Jack's Uses Social Media to Keep Customers Coming Back Hungry Jack's Uses Social Media to Keep Customers Coming Back
Hungry Jack's Uses Social Media to Keep Customers Coming Back Salesforce Marketing Cloud
 
WEBINAR: ROI of Social Media: Myths, Truths and How to Measure
WEBINAR: ROI of Social Media: Myths, Truths and How to MeasureWEBINAR: ROI of Social Media: Myths, Truths and How to Measure
WEBINAR: ROI of Social Media: Myths, Truths and How to MeasureSalesforce Marketing Cloud
 

Más de Salesforce Marketing Cloud (20)

Protecting Your Brand Message in Media Controlled by the Audience
Protecting Your Brand Message in Media Controlled by the AudienceProtecting Your Brand Message in Media Controlled by the Audience
Protecting Your Brand Message in Media Controlled by the Audience
 
Olympians vs. Food Infographic: Ready, Set, Eat!
Olympians vs. Food Infographic: Ready, Set, Eat!Olympians vs. Food Infographic: Ready, Set, Eat!
Olympians vs. Food Infographic: Ready, Set, Eat!
 
Hungry Jack's Uses Social Media to Keep Customers Coming Back
Hungry Jack's Uses Social Media to Keep Customers Coming Back Hungry Jack's Uses Social Media to Keep Customers Coming Back
Hungry Jack's Uses Social Media to Keep Customers Coming Back
 
March Madness: The Social Hoops Infographic
March Madness: The Social Hoops InfographicMarch Madness: The Social Hoops Infographic
March Madness: The Social Hoops Infographic
 
WEBINAR: ROI of Social Media: Myths, Truths and How to Measure
WEBINAR: ROI of Social Media: Myths, Truths and How to MeasureWEBINAR: ROI of Social Media: Myths, Truths and How to Measure
WEBINAR: ROI of Social Media: Myths, Truths and How to Measure
 
SXSW 2012 Social Media Buzz Report
SXSW 2012 Social Media Buzz ReportSXSW 2012 Social Media Buzz Report
SXSW 2012 Social Media Buzz Report
 
Listening to your Community
Listening to your Community Listening to your Community
Listening to your Community
 
The Social Super Bowl 2012
The Social Super Bowl 2012The Social Super Bowl 2012
The Social Super Bowl 2012
 
Post New Hampshire Primary
Post New Hampshire Primary Post New Hampshire Primary
Post New Hampshire Primary
 
Radian6 Iowa Caucus Summary
Radian6 Iowa Caucus SummaryRadian6 Iowa Caucus Summary
Radian6 Iowa Caucus Summary
 
Radian6: State of the Union Analysis
Radian6: State of the Union AnalysisRadian6: State of the Union Analysis
Radian6: State of the Union Analysis
 
Power of Social Media Communities
Power of Social Media CommunitiesPower of Social Media Communities
Power of Social Media Communities
 
Emerging Media Summit - IABC-IDA Louisville
Emerging Media Summit - IABC-IDA LouisvilleEmerging Media Summit - IABC-IDA Louisville
Emerging Media Summit - IABC-IDA Louisville
 
Lessons From B2B Social Media
Lessons From B2B Social MediaLessons From B2B Social Media
Lessons From B2B Social Media
 
The Social Enterprise on Campus
The Social Enterprise on Campus  The Social Enterprise on Campus
The Social Enterprise on Campus
 
Guiding the Enterprise Social Media Strategy
Guiding the Enterprise Social Media StrategyGuiding the Enterprise Social Media Strategy
Guiding the Enterprise Social Media Strategy
 
Radian6 Insights Webinar
Radian6 Insights WebinarRadian6 Insights Webinar
Radian6 Insights Webinar
 
Issue_Crisis_Management
Issue_Crisis_ManagementIssue_Crisis_Management
Issue_Crisis_Management
 
Digital Crisis Communications Plan
Digital Crisis Communications PlanDigital Crisis Communications Plan
Digital Crisis Communications Plan
 
THRiVE
THRiVETHRiVE
THRiVE
 

Último

UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 6
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 6UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 6
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 6DianaGray10
 
Anypoint Code Builder , Google Pub sub connector and MuleSoft RPA
Anypoint Code Builder , Google Pub sub connector and MuleSoft RPAAnypoint Code Builder , Google Pub sub connector and MuleSoft RPA
Anypoint Code Builder , Google Pub sub connector and MuleSoft RPAshyamraj55
 
Bird eye's view on Camunda open source ecosystem
Bird eye's view on Camunda open source ecosystemBird eye's view on Camunda open source ecosystem
Bird eye's view on Camunda open source ecosystemAsko Soukka
 
Crea il tuo assistente AI con lo Stregatto (open source python framework)
Crea il tuo assistente AI con lo Stregatto (open source python framework)Crea il tuo assistente AI con lo Stregatto (open source python framework)
Crea il tuo assistente AI con lo Stregatto (open source python framework)Commit University
 
activity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdfactivity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdf
activity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdfactivity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdfactivity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdfactivity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdf
activity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdfactivity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdfJamie (Taka) Wang
 
Machine Learning Model Validation (Aijun Zhang 2024).pdf
Machine Learning Model Validation (Aijun Zhang 2024).pdfMachine Learning Model Validation (Aijun Zhang 2024).pdf
Machine Learning Model Validation (Aijun Zhang 2024).pdfAijun Zhang
 
AI You Can Trust - Ensuring Success with Data Integrity Webinar
AI You Can Trust - Ensuring Success with Data Integrity WebinarAI You Can Trust - Ensuring Success with Data Integrity Webinar
AI You Can Trust - Ensuring Success with Data Integrity WebinarPrecisely
 
Basic Building Blocks of Internet of Things.
Basic Building Blocks of Internet of Things.Basic Building Blocks of Internet of Things.
Basic Building Blocks of Internet of Things.YounusS2
 
Building AI-Driven Apps Using Semantic Kernel.pptx
Building AI-Driven Apps Using Semantic Kernel.pptxBuilding AI-Driven Apps Using Semantic Kernel.pptx
Building AI-Driven Apps Using Semantic Kernel.pptxUdaiappa Ramachandran
 
Comparing Sidecar-less Service Mesh from Cilium and Istio
Comparing Sidecar-less Service Mesh from Cilium and IstioComparing Sidecar-less Service Mesh from Cilium and Istio
Comparing Sidecar-less Service Mesh from Cilium and IstioChristian Posta
 
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 7
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 7UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 7
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 7DianaGray10
 
Building Your Own AI Instance (TBLC AI )
Building Your Own AI Instance (TBLC AI )Building Your Own AI Instance (TBLC AI )
Building Your Own AI Instance (TBLC AI )Brian Pichman
 
Using IESVE for Loads, Sizing and Heat Pump Modeling to Achieve Decarbonization
Using IESVE for Loads, Sizing and Heat Pump Modeling to Achieve DecarbonizationUsing IESVE for Loads, Sizing and Heat Pump Modeling to Achieve Decarbonization
Using IESVE for Loads, Sizing and Heat Pump Modeling to Achieve DecarbonizationIES VE
 
Nanopower In Semiconductor Industry.pdf
Nanopower  In Semiconductor Industry.pdfNanopower  In Semiconductor Industry.pdf
Nanopower In Semiconductor Industry.pdfPedro Manuel
 
Meet the new FSP 3000 M-Flex800™
Meet the new FSP 3000 M-Flex800™Meet the new FSP 3000 M-Flex800™
Meet the new FSP 3000 M-Flex800™Adtran
 
Apres-Cyber - The Data Dilemma: Bridging Offensive Operations and Machine Lea...
Apres-Cyber - The Data Dilemma: Bridging Offensive Operations and Machine Lea...Apres-Cyber - The Data Dilemma: Bridging Offensive Operations and Machine Lea...
Apres-Cyber - The Data Dilemma: Bridging Offensive Operations and Machine Lea...Will Schroeder
 
Computer 10: Lesson 10 - Online Crimes and Hazards
Computer 10: Lesson 10 - Online Crimes and HazardsComputer 10: Lesson 10 - Online Crimes and Hazards
Computer 10: Lesson 10 - Online Crimes and HazardsSeth Reyes
 
ADOPTING WEB 3 FOR YOUR BUSINESS: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
ADOPTING WEB 3 FOR YOUR BUSINESS: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDEADOPTING WEB 3 FOR YOUR BUSINESS: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
ADOPTING WEB 3 FOR YOUR BUSINESS: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDELiveplex
 
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 8
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 8UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 8
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 8DianaGray10
 
9 Steps For Building Winning Founding Team
9 Steps For Building Winning Founding Team9 Steps For Building Winning Founding Team
9 Steps For Building Winning Founding TeamAdam Moalla
 

Último (20)

UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 6
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 6UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 6
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 6
 
Anypoint Code Builder , Google Pub sub connector and MuleSoft RPA
Anypoint Code Builder , Google Pub sub connector and MuleSoft RPAAnypoint Code Builder , Google Pub sub connector and MuleSoft RPA
Anypoint Code Builder , Google Pub sub connector and MuleSoft RPA
 
Bird eye's view on Camunda open source ecosystem
Bird eye's view on Camunda open source ecosystemBird eye's view on Camunda open source ecosystem
Bird eye's view on Camunda open source ecosystem
 
Crea il tuo assistente AI con lo Stregatto (open source python framework)
Crea il tuo assistente AI con lo Stregatto (open source python framework)Crea il tuo assistente AI con lo Stregatto (open source python framework)
Crea il tuo assistente AI con lo Stregatto (open source python framework)
 
activity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdfactivity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdf
activity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdfactivity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdfactivity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdfactivity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdf
activity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdfactivity_diagram_combine_v4_20190827.pdf
 
Machine Learning Model Validation (Aijun Zhang 2024).pdf
Machine Learning Model Validation (Aijun Zhang 2024).pdfMachine Learning Model Validation (Aijun Zhang 2024).pdf
Machine Learning Model Validation (Aijun Zhang 2024).pdf
 
AI You Can Trust - Ensuring Success with Data Integrity Webinar
AI You Can Trust - Ensuring Success with Data Integrity WebinarAI You Can Trust - Ensuring Success with Data Integrity Webinar
AI You Can Trust - Ensuring Success with Data Integrity Webinar
 
Basic Building Blocks of Internet of Things.
Basic Building Blocks of Internet of Things.Basic Building Blocks of Internet of Things.
Basic Building Blocks of Internet of Things.
 
Building AI-Driven Apps Using Semantic Kernel.pptx
Building AI-Driven Apps Using Semantic Kernel.pptxBuilding AI-Driven Apps Using Semantic Kernel.pptx
Building AI-Driven Apps Using Semantic Kernel.pptx
 
Comparing Sidecar-less Service Mesh from Cilium and Istio
Comparing Sidecar-less Service Mesh from Cilium and IstioComparing Sidecar-less Service Mesh from Cilium and Istio
Comparing Sidecar-less Service Mesh from Cilium and Istio
 
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 7
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 7UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 7
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 7
 
Building Your Own AI Instance (TBLC AI )
Building Your Own AI Instance (TBLC AI )Building Your Own AI Instance (TBLC AI )
Building Your Own AI Instance (TBLC AI )
 
Using IESVE for Loads, Sizing and Heat Pump Modeling to Achieve Decarbonization
Using IESVE for Loads, Sizing and Heat Pump Modeling to Achieve DecarbonizationUsing IESVE for Loads, Sizing and Heat Pump Modeling to Achieve Decarbonization
Using IESVE for Loads, Sizing and Heat Pump Modeling to Achieve Decarbonization
 
Nanopower In Semiconductor Industry.pdf
Nanopower  In Semiconductor Industry.pdfNanopower  In Semiconductor Industry.pdf
Nanopower In Semiconductor Industry.pdf
 
Meet the new FSP 3000 M-Flex800™
Meet the new FSP 3000 M-Flex800™Meet the new FSP 3000 M-Flex800™
Meet the new FSP 3000 M-Flex800™
 
Apres-Cyber - The Data Dilemma: Bridging Offensive Operations and Machine Lea...
Apres-Cyber - The Data Dilemma: Bridging Offensive Operations and Machine Lea...Apres-Cyber - The Data Dilemma: Bridging Offensive Operations and Machine Lea...
Apres-Cyber - The Data Dilemma: Bridging Offensive Operations and Machine Lea...
 
Computer 10: Lesson 10 - Online Crimes and Hazards
Computer 10: Lesson 10 - Online Crimes and HazardsComputer 10: Lesson 10 - Online Crimes and Hazards
Computer 10: Lesson 10 - Online Crimes and Hazards
 
ADOPTING WEB 3 FOR YOUR BUSINESS: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
ADOPTING WEB 3 FOR YOUR BUSINESS: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDEADOPTING WEB 3 FOR YOUR BUSINESS: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
ADOPTING WEB 3 FOR YOUR BUSINESS: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
 
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 8
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 8UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 8
UiPath Studio Web workshop series - Day 8
 
9 Steps For Building Winning Founding Team
9 Steps For Building Winning Founding Team9 Steps For Building Winning Founding Team
9 Steps For Building Winning Founding Team
 

Defining and Measuring Social Media Influence

  • 1. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 / www.radian6.com 1 888 6radian Written by CHUCK HEMANN, LAUREN VARG and TERESA BASICH AS Copyright © 2011 - Radian6
  • 2. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE or the influence we have in our day-to-day offline lives. CHAPTER 1: Brian Solis, principal of FutureWorks, a DEFINING SOCIAL digital and social media communications agency based in the Silicon Valley, has defined MEDIA INFLUENCE In the business sector of social influence as: media, agencies, vendors, and successful enterprises rail en …The ability to cause desirable and masse about the benefits of measurable actions and outcomes. That definition feels almost a bit calculating, building relationships with brand doesn’t it? But when you really think about it, this is a fantastic definition of what influence “influencers” to gain a strong encompasses. Whether the outcomes we foothold on the social web. “Your want are inherently good or bad makes no influencers are your best brand difference – we want them, and to influence is to encourage the actions that drive our desired representatives, “ we say. “Those outcomes. people have the highest ability to impact the purchasing behavior of What is online influence? your greater brand community, “ On web-based social networks, influence is no different than the definition stated above, we preach. And that’s all true. although there are nuances of online influence that organizations should consider as they But what, exactly, do we mean when we talk strive to identify their “influencers” and create about social media influence? How can you, their own influence strategies. as a company, find the right group of people – large or small – to make that desired impact • Influence moves much quicker through the on your business? In this paper we’ll strive social web than it does in the offline world. to clearly define influence as it pertains to Why? Because of the immediate and vast the social web, identify why social influence exposure people and businesses can garner matters to businesses, and identify some on the Internet. strong metrics and approaches for selecting • Stances and influencer status can change and interacting with a group of brand quickly because of a single person’s influencers that make sense for your company. experience and accompanying online commentary. Influence is truly fluid; much like trust, for businesses at least, influence takes work to develop and can be easily lost. What is Influence? At the simplest level, influence is the ability to impact a person or thing in ways that inspire action. Influence is very much about cause and • The outcomes of online influence can be effect, and that truth applies across the board, easier to identify than offline influence whether we’re talking about online influence because we can easily access a larger pool of reactions than we’d be able to offline. www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 3. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE The essence of influence is the same no matter Another example? Graco’s efforts to where it’s employed or experienced. The reactions to that influence, though, and the connect and become involved with the gap between the cause and effect of an act of In an effort to develop a strong relationship influential online parenting community. influence are the things that seem to be most with this community, Graco organized Graco subject to nuance. Get-Together events in which they met key influential bloggers to learn about the community itself and slowly integrate their brand into the mix. They then launched Can online influence drive business? The reason all this clarification is so important the GracoBaby blog to enable two-way is that influence, when clearly understood and communication between the organization and well applied, can be a great boon to businesses. community. Empowering your loyal customers and fans to share the experiences they’ve had with Although the Graco case study is a bit old, your brand(s) and products with their social the fundamental pieces of it are still highly networks is the foundation of word-of-mouth relevant to today’s influencer relations efforts. marketing. It also builds trust around your And we’ll talk about those fundamental pieces brand and bolsters your company reputation. next. Influence is a two-way street, of course. There are companies out there also taking the stance So, what, exactly, makes up influence, and of “influencee,” letting their customers and how can we use it? fans impact the direction of their products and Influence as a noun is made up of a few services. different aspects, and openly demonstrating these aspects on- and/or offline is key to making strong connections with the people you want to influence and, ultimately, impact. For example… TurboTax’s Inner Circle community. The Inner Circle is a large community of TurboTax • Trust – Trust is the foundation of influence. users who have been selected as product beta The only way people connect with each testers. These folks provide feedback on the other is by trusting that they’ve been product, rate and comment on new proposed accepted and will be treated fairly. Of course, features, and ultimately contribute to the acceptance and fairness are relative, but annual improvement of the TurboTax software we’re trying to break this into simple terms suite. At the end of each year, TurboTax that we can all understand and use. Identify incorporates 35 community-suggested how your community establishes trust and features into its product to offer a consistently acceptance and work from there. improved piece of software. • Authority – If you know what you’re saying Intuit, parent company of TurboTax, and doing, people will listen and take heed. recognized the potential behind incorporating This isn’t about all expounding expertise, attentive, engaged customers into the fold per se – although that’s a big part of it – it’s of their business model, and has done so also about having and demonstrating strong successfully with its Inner Circle community. beliefs that resonate within people and steer them in directions they want to go. www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 4. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE • Value – Again, value is relative here, but Here’s the short of it: it’s an essential piece of influence. To have any impact on a person you need to provide Popularity: Being widely known. some sort of value to them. By providing value you create a positive benefit for Influence: Being able to inspire action with or people. That’s it, really. without a large following. • Connection – People are willing to act on Yes, these definitions are a bit oversimplified, behalf of others if they feel the benefit of but they’re quick and useful takes on doing so outweighs the cost. While trust, popularity and influence. One is inherently authority, and value are all important pieces about inspiring action, while the other is not. of influence, a mutual connectivity or bond For the sake of education and eye opening, between the influencer and influencee is the though, let’s get a little grittier with the glue that binds. differences. To influence anyone, you must build trust, People who are popular are known by name establish authority, deliver value, and form a and possibly reputation, but not necessarily mutual connection with them. Those who have by their connections with individuals. In the become influential within specific networks online world, these people’s networks are have fostered all these things with all those comprised largely of weak ties rather than networks, and all of it is tailored to each close relationships. Those who perceive network. this popularity think the popular folk are entertaining, the life of the party, and their Note that, as a business, you will have to attention is often caught by what these people develop these things with your selected list of say and do. influencers to get them on your side. You must work to connect with them on these levels to When it comes to moving others to act on their gain their cooperation. And before you do any behalf for a specific cause or purpose, though, of that, you must identify who the right people the power of the popular folk diminishes. are for your business to connect with, what These popular people, while amusing, haven’t principles and beliefs resonate with them, and built a mutual trust, proved their authority in how they define value. For the purposes of any subject, or provided substantial value to this paper, we’ll be focusing on that first major their network. Most importantly, they haven’t piece – identifying your influencers. But before developed a mutual bond with those who we do that, let’s address this tricky thing called make up their social graph. popularity. Capturing the attention of your network isn’t the same as moving them to do something. Influential folks, however, can inspire action. What about popularity? Does it matter? Originally, we were going to dedicate an entire We should note here that influence is powerful chapter to the difference between influence and popularity, but, after doing some research According to an HP Labs study on influence and and some thinking, we realized the discussion no matter the size of someone’s network. passivity in social media, the size of a person’s around this particular facet of the topic of influence doesn’t need to be nearly as long. ability to cause an effect. So it makes no social graph is weakly linked to this person’s www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 5. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE difference if a person has 100 friends or 1,000 traffic to your website, the role these metrics friends linked to them via social networks; play in defining your business’ performance is if they have done those things that connect under some question. people to them in meaningful, moving ways, they will influence the behavior of their Within this argument, there’s a camp of network. people who believe true ROI is really the only performance metric companies care about. Both popularity and influence are useful tools In a widely viewed presentation, brand and for business, but to make the most of them, you marketing management consultant Olivier must be clear on what each tool impacts and Blanchard outlined several truths about what general sorts of results each will deliver. social media ROI, his primary argument being that these softer metrics are not ROI and that ROI is purely a financial calculation. Popularity begets awareness, but influence begets action. Now that we’ve shared the theoretical side Blanchard is not wrong, but neither is the of influence, let’s get into the fast and hard camp of people utilizing softer metrics to conversation of measuring influence. What measure impact. Recently, Amber Naslund, are the metrics best suited for identifying VP of Social Strategy at Radian6, outlined the influence? Is there a hard metric that “13 Truths About Social Media,” arguing that applies across the board in every influencer there is more to social media measurement identification program? Is influence even and success than ROI. measurable in numeric form? Well, we’re getting to that. Whether you are using hard metrics, like a pure ROI calculation, or are willing to subscribe to softer metrics for measuring success, the reality is that we’re far from solving this riddle. In fact, some of the issues that have plagued traditional media CHAPTER 2: THE BATTLE measurement are now starting to show their faces in social media marketing. However, BETWEEN SOFT that’s the subject of another eBook. AND HARD METRICS We believe the answer to the soft and hard metrics question lands somewhere in the The debate about whether or middle of these two extremes. We’re guessing not we should be using hard or that your mother probably taught you the soft metrics is one of the hottest principle of “everything in moderation,” right? Well, much of that holds true for social media within social media marketing marketing. The best approaches are looking circles. You’ve likely seen plenty of at ways to truly capture ROI while using softer metrics to outline behavioral changes. skepticism around the role of soft metrics in measuring the impact of social media. Whether Unsurprisingly, there are also questions we’re talking about the change in share of about using one or the other type of metric voice/conversation, a rise in the number of exclusively to define influence. Do quantitative searches about your brand, or an increase in www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 6. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE metrics even matter? Do qualitative metrics This is an important thing for brands to keep introduce unnecessary bias? Does the in mind: One metric or even one group of introduction of qualitative metrics make metrics cannot tell you the entire influence influencer analysis inherently NOT scientific? story. Numbers themselves cannot be viewed Is a scientific analysis of influencers within a in isolation. The example we gave above is a topical area important for brands? What’s the perfect case study. It isn’t enough to look at a ideal balance between automation and human blog’s inbound links and consider that blogger intervention? influential. In addition to inbound links, we should be thinking about total visitors, unique Let’s take a second to try and answer these visitors, inbound links, number of comments questions. per post, number of retweets per post, and that’s just naming a few metrics. You can quickly fall down the metrics rabbit hole if care is not paid to what metrics matter most to Using strictly quantitative metrics to you and your brand. This is where qualitative define influence How much of a person’s online influence factors must come into play. can we determine based entirely by their numbers? Does a person who has 10,000 followers have greater influence than someone who has 5,000? What about a person who The role of automation How much or little an influencer identification writes a blog and has 20,000 inbound links program should be automated is another hotly versus someone else who has 10,000? What debated question. There are a number of tools if we built an algorithm that looks at these that help you automate the process including strictly quantitative factors for a person’s Klout, Tweet Level, Twitter Grader and online presence? Would anyone buy the final Technorati. These applications give you the output? numbers you need, and then you can input them into a document to track which people In all honesty, numbers have been critical you deem influential. since long before we were even talking about Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and the The “scores” these sites present are well rest of the online universe. Establishing how reasoned in their own right, but they present many people you could potentially reach with brands with three specific challenges: a certain action (more on reach coming up) is something the traditional public relations/ • The scores aren’t truly “online” influence communications world has struggled with measures – Most of these online solutions from the beginning. However, just because are providing a score based on one or only you have 10,000 followers on Twitter and I a couple of online channels. A person’s only have 5,000 doesn’t mean you are more online influence is much more than his or influential than I am. In a broader context her influence on Twitter. What if I have a than just Twitter, just because you have the YouTube channel, as well? Or a blog? Or opportunity to reach more people online what if I actively participate within an doesn’t make you more influential. Its how open LinkedIn community? Shouldn’t I get those numbers come together that explains credit for my entire online presence? The how influential a person could or couldn’t be answer is clearly yes, but, until one of these to a brand. tools develops a score that incorporates a www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 7. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE person’s entire online presence, the scores technology right up until the point when you must be considered only for the channel in are trying to nail down your final influencer which they are measuring. list. Until an online tool incorporates the above, use those sites as more of an “FYI” than • Relevance – More on this in a second, but anything else and develop your own list of these online tools are not determining metrics. whether or not a persons’ Twitter presence is relevant for a particular brand. Take social media marketing expert Chris Brogan’s The role of qualitative analysis Klout score for example. He has a score This discussion could very easily be called “The of 84 on Klout. If you spend only a little role of the analyst in influencer identification.” time there you’d realize that’s a very high Where does a human come into play when you score. Yes, Chris is probably influential on are defining who is influential for your brand? Twitter, but ask yourself this very important The answer, quite simply, is everywhere. It’s question – has Chris written anything about why a successfully developed approach to your brand or about a related topic area that influencer identification that combines human you care about? If the answer is no, then intervention with quantitative metrics will should he be included on your influencer always win over something that appears to be list? totally automated or strictly quantitative. • No insight into the “black box” – There So where does the analyst, or brand manager, are many influencer “algorithms” out there. or anyone trying to develop an influencer Putting aside whether they are good or bad list come into play? There are three very for a second, we tend to have very little important roles of the analyst: insight into what goes into the final output. Now, nobody is asking these companies or • Normalizing the data – We mentioned firms to disclose the “secret sauce,” but we above that there is not one single metric, should be able to piece together how you regardless of channel, that can be used to came up with the score you did. If we can’t, define influence. We cannot look at just the number has to be taken with a grain of total visits and consider a blog influential. salt. Similarly with Twitter followers. After a person or team gathers the appropriate Whether or not you can use one of these tools metrics, a process of normalizing the data to determine influencers for your brand is a must occur, otherwise comparing inbound separate discussion than the one detailing links to, say, number of comments on a blog if the process of pulling metrics for your post would not make sense. The scales are influencer identification program should be wildly different. Similarly, for your brand, automated or not. The answer to that question it might make more sense to place more is clearly yes, and as much as you can automate weight on total visits than inbound links. you should. The best influencer algorithms That’s a call only a human can make. combine lots of metrics across lots of different platforms, and pulling those all by hand is • Determining relevance – We’ll be spending labor intensive. It’s been done, but that process more time talking about relevance in the is inefficient and it leaves a lot of opportunity influencer equation later on, but this is for human error. We recommend using likely the most critical part of influencer www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 8. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE identification. Technorati publishes a list of overly simplistic, getting started with social the Top 100 blogs based on the Technorati media is hard. Authority score. The search conducted to find that site took literally one minute to Anyone who tells you it’s easy to create a blog, complete. You could do that also, but take Twitter, or YouTube presence is misleading a look at the list of sites. If you are a brand you. Creating the site or account is easy, yes, manager working for a midsize business- but drawing in and engaging with the right to-business brand in Topeka, Kansas, or people is very hard. Heck listening to, let alone someone representing said brand, does engaging in, the right conversations is hard Gizmodo really matter to you? Probably not. enough. A strong influencer identification Now, if you were a large technology brand program helps partially solve the “boil then Gizmodo would matter a great deal. the ocean” conundrum of social media We haven’t yet encountered a computer engagement. smart enough to determine brand relevancy completely. A human must be involved to Compete estimates that there were evaluate a site’s influence. approximately 175 million people who visited Twitter.com in November. Taking a number • Segmenting your influencer list – Here is like 175 million and turning it into 50 easily what most consultants won’t tell you – not allows a brand to get its head around who everyone on your influencer list would be could be a potential outreach target and who’d categorized as an “outreach” target. You make it onto the “Listen to These Folks” list. could work in an industry that’s heavily dominated by forum conversations. Anyone So, let’s get back to the question at hand: who’s tried to reach forum participants Do brands want something that’s totally before can tell you that it is very difficult automated? Our answer to this question would to even enter the forum as a brand. have to be no. Brands are comforted by the However, just because you can’t engage role of a human in the analysis. They generally with them, doesn’t mean you can’t listen to trust that a person understands the brand and conversations. Use a tool like Radian6 to the brand’s goals more so than a computer monitor conversations in that forum. You’d ever could. Not only that, but an influencer be surprised at the market intelligence list only becomes useful when it’s relevant you’ll acquire by just listening. No amount and properly segmented to meet brand goals. of automation is going to segment the list These are two things that a computer cannot for you. readily achieve. Will we reach a stage where the Klouts of the world are more a trusted resource for brands? Absolutely, but we aren’t there yet. Do brands want totally automated influencer identification? Do brands want targeted influencer lists? The answer is absolutely yes! Do they want Bringing qualitative and quantitative something that’s purely automated? Our metrics together experience to date has been absolutely You’ve no doubt already figured out that not. This gets to the root of the influencer our approach to influencer identification identification question – why do brands try incorporates both quantitative and qualitative and do it in the first place? At the risk of being analysis. We want to develop our list of www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 9. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE metrics, outline our goals for the list, create to help you explain someone’s total online the list, segment by relevance, and then footprint. segment by potential use (e.g., listening only, engagement, outreach, etc.). We want to The approach to mapping and defining online automate everything we can automate then influence must take into account metrics use a human to ferret out the final list. that can be bucketed under the following categories: reach, relevance, and syndication. If your methodology is sound and the person It’s important to note here that we aren’t conducting the analysis for you has enough just talking about the reach, relevance, and brand knowledge, then the final list will be syndication of the outlet. Rather, our focus is a true representation of who is influential on those three buckets as applied to the outlet for your brand online. If not, the list created and the individual doing the talking. That’s could bear fruit, but will it create “buzz” in the ultimately what we care most about, right? markets that care most about your product? Well, maybe. But do you want to create a list Social media marketing is about engaging of influencers, reach out to them, and have with people, is it not? We’re not going to be little to show for it? In other words, what’s the engaging with The Huffington Post, or New York ROI of your influencer identification program? Times, or USA Today, right? We’re going to be Create the rigor, develop the list, use the list, engaging with bloggers or reporters at those and drive ROI. That’s what everybody should outlets, first and foremost. We’ll be talking at be striving to do. length in this section about the characteristics of each of these buckets and how you bring them together. CHAPTER 3: Reach It’s likely easiest to start here because this is where most of our focus tends to be. We THE INTERPLAY want to know how many eyeballs a channel could potentially reach. We tend to focus our BETWEEN BRAND RELEVANCE, REACH, attention on the New York Times because its online presence is very large – 65 million AND SYNDICATION total visits in November according to Compete. It’s a similar story with USA Today, or Of everything we’re talking about The Huffington Post, or Washington Post. They in this paper, we hope you take reach a lot of people. away the fact that influence in However, if we’re living by the theory that social media is comprised of more we’re focused on reaching an individual at one than just reach. Similarly, influence of these outlets, how does taking into account only that site’s Web traffic really help us? The is mapped out by using more than just one answer is, it doesn’t. It’s important to take that metric. Or even five metrics. Or even 10 into account, yes, but we also need to know metrics. Ideally, that map is constructed by how much traffic for that site can be attributed bringing together the best set of metrics to a single author. This is where everybody’s www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 10. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE favorite subject, math, comes into play. viewed (or has the potential to be viewed) by Obviously there is more to the reach part of many people is even better. But, how widely the equation than total visits, so what are some dispersed that content is could be considered other metrics you could consider? the Holy Grail. Not to continue on too long with Chris Brogan but his blog is a good gauge for demonstrating On the outlet side: On the author side: this idea of syndication. His blog receives hundreds of thousands of views according to Total visits Total posts authored Compete, and his site has been linked more (or tweets, blog posts, than 400,000 times according to Yahoo! Site articles) Explorer. Those are amazing numbers, but Unique visits they’re only one part of the equation. Take Inbound links Inbound links to the a look at how often his content is shared on author’s posts Twitter. If you look at his recent posts, they’ve been retweeted a significant number of times. Inbound links Unique people reached Those hundreds of thousands of views just Organic keywords Total people reached grew exponentially simply by someone picking Now, it’s important to note two things when up his content and syndicating it. you’re evaluating which reach metrics you want to use: So, what other metrics can you use to define syndication? Again, this is similar to reach • The relative weight of each metric will in that we’re focused on outlet and author change for each brand. There’s a lot of syndication. science that can be applied to the online influencer process, but nothing can replace a human looking at the data and thinking about what matters most for the brand. On the outlet side: On the author side: How you weight each of these things will Google results for the Average number of change based on those goals. outlet name times a headline is retweeted/headline • How much weight you give to the author Google blog results for indexed, etc… metrics versus the outlet metrics will also the outlet name Largest number of change. There’s no secret sauce here. This is times a headline is another place where your analyst will come Google news results for retweeted/headline in handy. How much weight you give to the the outlet name indexed, etc… author versus the outlet is obviously critical Number of times the to the final output. As a general rule of author’s name thumb, remember that we’re most focused appears in Google on reaching individuals, not outlets. Number of times the author’s name appears in Google plus the outlet Syndication In the spirit of reaching as many people as Number of times the we can, syndication plays a critical role in author’s name appears the online influencer equation. Creating in Google plus the brand content is great, but creating it on a site that is www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 11. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list but a together. Skip relevancy and you’ll have come place where you can get started. We’re sure up with an interesting list that may or may not you can come up with your own syndication be actionable for your brand. metrics. You may realize that only a couple of these are relevant for your brand. Whichever method you choose, the same key points Bringing this all together we mentioned above for reach apply here: You don’t need to spend much time reading The relative weight of each metric and how this to understand that there are a significant much weight you put on the author’s score amount of data points here. With a large versus the outlet’s score will vary. That’s not number of data points comes a lot of data something we can provide you. Know, however, capture, and with a lot of data capture comes that everybody has their individual methods the need for additional resources to gather, for bringing these things together. crunch, and then develop the output. This is further evidence that a dedicated analyst or team of analysts is critical to completing an influencer identification program. So what are Relevance This is probably the most important factor some other things you need to keep in mind? in the online influence equation. As we discussed in the previous section, knowing • Date range for analysis – This should reach and syndication metrics are nice but if go without saying, but capturing the a person is not creating relevant content for appropriate amount of data across these the brand, how could he or she be considered data points (or others you might discover/ an influencer? Honestly, he or she just can’t create) is critical. You don’t want to grab be. Without relevance what you likely have is only the last month’s worth of content, the same kind of traditional media list you’ve because that introduces a few different been working from for years. We think we can issues including whether or not one event safely say that everyone would like to come up is unduly influencing the final output. The with something more targeted, right? As with ideal scenario has you capturing 12 months’ the other metrics we outlined, with relevance worth of data and extending your range we’re also focused on author and outlet from there. Whatever your date range may relevance. What are some metrics you could be, it is important to be consistent. Don’t use? grab six months worth of data for Twitter and then only 3 months for blogs. • This is just a snapshot in time – Even On the outlet side: On the author side: though you’ve captured a critical mass of data (ideally 12 months of it), the final Total mentions of a topic Total mentions of a topic output still is a snapshot in time. Whatever Percentage of posts that Percentage of posts that list you develop will need to be consistently mention a topic mention a topic refreshed. The online space changes in a Continuing on the broken record theme, it’s blink, and today’s number 10 influencer important to note that the relative weights of may be number 50 three months from now. these metrics and the outlet-versus-author Decide how often you want to refresh your side will vary by brand. Relevancy, however, list when you are coming up with your plan is the key component of how this all comes of action for the project. www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 12. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE • Ranking only matters so much – To the relevance. Without one of these pieces of point of this data being a snapshot in time, the equation, you run the risk of creating an just because someone is a top influencer influencer list that’s not necessarily reflective now doesn’t mean they will be three months of your brand or the topic area at large. from now. Similarly, just because someone is number 10 today doesn’t mean they can’t become number one three months from now. Remember, after you’ve completed your list you’ll want to segment it by how CHAPTER 4: you’re going to “use” that person. Are INFLUENCE BY they “listening only?” Are they “direct engagement?” Are they “outreach in the CHANNEL VS. form of a release?” The more you reach out to a person, the greater the likelihood that INFLUENCE ACROSS their influencer “score” will change over a period of time. THE SOCIAL WEB • A person can show up in multiple Television isn’t the same as categories – It’s critical to take into account radio, which isn’t the same as the newspaper. So, why would you a person’s entire online footprint. Capturing a person’s blog is great, but what about their Twitter footprint? What if they are blogging think social media channels should in multiple places with relevant content? be treated any differently? Twitter is not the same as Facebook, which What if they are participating in a forum? You see the point here. A person can have scores across multiple channels, and that is not the same as YouTube. Each should impact their overall online influence social media channel has its own identity, in your list. community, content, and influencers. And there are countless social media channels • Relative weight of reach, syndication, and outside the big three (Twitter, Facebook and relevance will vary – In this eBook we talk YouTube). In fact, in this age, every person about how each metric could possibly be could be viewed as his or her own network. weighed. The reality, though, is that how Just like in traditional media, there will you weight each of the broader buckets always be some crossover of channels, but it’s will change by brand. If you’re running a dangerous to treat each community and set of campaign centered mostly on traditional influencers the same. media, then maybe reach is most important to you. Either way, you’ll need to determine that after you’ve gathered all of the relevant (there’s that word again) data. Building trust (and influence) with knowledge According to a 2010 report by Forrester analysts Augie Ray and Josh Bernoff, some Like we mentioned at the beginning of this 500 billion impressions about products and chapter, we want you to understand that services are created in social media each year. measuring and ranking influence online is This is a massive pool of conversations over done by a combining reach, syndication, and a multitude of social channels for people to www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 13. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE derive influence. According to Ray and Bernoff, these impressions are split into two types Content consumption and chatter varies of influence: (1) influence from people within by channel social networks, and (2) influence created by According to a study from online advertising posts across blogs, forums, and review sites. network, Chitka, users’ interests and From this data, Ray and Bernoff concluded that platform they’re using. The insights gleaned expectations vary sharply depending on the the online impressions people make on each from over 287,000 impressions depict nearly other regarding product and services are about half (47%) of the traffic Twitter generates one fourth of the online advertising impression, goes to news sites and that the only genre and that a small percentage of people generate appearing in all five sites studied was celebrity 80% of the impressions. We encourage you and entertainment. to download the Forrester report if you’re interested in learning more about the Forrester method of influencer analysis. All this research is to say that influence, no matter how you look at it, is built on credibility of knowledge. The Edelman Trust Barometer 2010 found “informed publics place the most trust in expert spokespeople and information sources.” This past year has been one of economic uncertainty, and, while we’re still influenced by average folks like us, this type of influence has lost ground. Influence runs much deeper than how many followers a person or company may have, and lives in the knowledge transferred and received. There’s no doubt we’re in the middle of a Social Media Revolution, but the data is changing rapidly as new channels appear, disappear, unite, and reshape, as is the way people are consuming media. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of social media statistics floating around. It’s important that you look beyond the masses of data to discover where your community is consuming content and engaging in conversations that are relevant to your organization’s goals and objectives. Be your own case study. Monitor and discover valuable insights from your primary data to start building relationships in www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 14. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE channels that will help you build and identify Share of Conversation is a combination of a trust through shared knowledge. few metrics that we happen to think give you some strong insight into how your online activities are directly impacting your goals and objectives. This metric helps you understand Share of Conversation When folks start to dive into social media they not just the volume of buzz about you, but how tend to put all their effort into those channels with the potential for a lot of eyeballs. The present and recognized you are among the problem with this tactic is that just gathering with. In other words, how much you’re in front conversations you want to be associated lots of eyeballs isn’t what actually matters, but of the right eyeballs. In the case of this metric, rather gathering the right eyeballs and then the hypothesis is that if you’re mentioned in driving them to perform a desired action. relevant conversations, you’ll gain mindshare and therefore increase the likelihood of When you talk in these terms be aware that someone choosing you over a competitor in you’re looking at potential reach, not actual the same market. reach, unless you can ensure that all of your friends or followers are logged in and viewing Radian6’s CEO, Marcel Lebrun, blogged in your content on a given day (which is nearly heavy detail the methodology for establishing impossible). There are some loose ideas about your Share of Conversation metric, but the peak usage times and percentages for varying high-level process looks like this: social networks, but getting actual reach numbers is going to be tough. • Set up a monitoring post for a topic, subject, or market within which you want to be For example, 50% of active users log on to talked about. For example, if you’re a non- Facebook on any given day, meaning only profit working in diabetes research, you half your fans are even likely to see your might want to look at conversations around status updates, and that among the rest of the “diabetes research,” “diabetes support,” posts they view. So, you might only be able to or any number of subjects you’d like to be account for a 20%-30% view rate from your known/found for. total following. • Within that topic, track and count the posts The web simply cannot be condensed to a that mention the topic(s) you’re interested single mass strategy, so it’s best to identify during a specific time period. 30 days is relevant conversations to ensure you are generally a good window. participating in those channels with the right (Metric 1: Total Conversation Posts per 30 eyeballs (you should be able to get started days.) with that process after reviewing the previous chapter). • Then, track the posts that mention that topic and mention you together during that Now, this topic might seem better suited for same timeframe. (Metric 2: Total Brand/ the measurement-focused sections of this Conversation Posts per 30 days.) eBook, but trust us that Share of Conversation and overall influence on the social web go • Divide Metric 1 by Metric 2. The resulting hand in hand. One directly represents the percentage is your Share of Conversation. other, actually, and we’ll show you how. www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 15. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE Take a look at Marcel’s post for more information about why this measurement CHAPTER 4: really matters and has deeper value than just “how many people are talking about us”. HUMAN Figuring out where you should be engaging INTERVENTION starts with looking at where your audience currently exists. Your community will appear VS. TOTALLY in a few places to start, or perhaps many if your organization is inherently social. You’ll be AUTOMATED TOOLS able to identify exactly where that audience is The age-old debate of man versus machine is becoming more through your listening strategy. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t put effort prevalent as the science fiction of yesterday becomes today’s reality. Maybe the Artificial Intelligence or resources into interacting on big social happens to be. Software companies, for networks if that’s not where your audience we’re talking about now is example, are often mentioned on support forums or communities, thus showing a much larger portion of customer activity than, say, not what we expected, but it’s Facebook. Just because certain social channels are more popular than others – or even more definitely what we are working popular than other types of media – that with and towards. doesn’t mean your market is there. Do your research before you commit to engaging on a It’s unwise to think in extremes because particular network. there’s no clear winner, or in this case, magic button or algorithm. While social channels We know engagement can be a stick subject, have brought to light conversations that especially when it comes to scaling those brands just can’t afford to overlook, the efforts. How do you converse with hundreds expectations of sustainable listening and or even thousands of folks on a regular basis engagement have become a serious issue for and make sure the conversations you’re having organizations to tackle and solve. It’s essential are relevant and useful to your business? Can that organizations carefully think through any of that interaction be automated? And how their plans for automation when creating does this all play into interacting with your social media outreach strategies, especially influencers? That’s the next piece of the puzzle. when approaching influencer outreach. Interaction/automation as a mindset Influence is really quite personal, right? And we can all agree that influence is based in finding a connection that permeates the surface of general awareness and engagement. The intent to develop deeper relationships between organizations and communities is at the heart of today’s business shift. www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 16. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE Social media is now the conduit for valuable conversations that were once limited to private out which relationships to concentrate our group discussion or shared through siloed limited resources on. But our focus should feedback mechanisms. To establish what always be on people, not technology. This aspects of their social media interactions can has never been more evident than at times be automated, organizations must first craft an like these.” influencer identification program and define The processes and tools supporting our what is considered influential content within interaction should remain where they their marketplace. belong, in the background. In the case of the Haiti tragedy, the function of donation and The goal of automation is not to fully replace information gathering was not in the limelight, people with a computerized system, e.g., it was the global response that shined. The an unpaid employee, but allow people to human connection came first and remains the have more time engaging in relevant and foundation on which organizations need to meaningful conversations rather than sift build their automated efforts. through endless channels, mountains of data, and noise. Automated processes help remove those inefficient and redundant functions and Interaction/automation as a mechanism allow us to do what we do best: be human. There is no all-encompassing mechanism or Influence should be built and guarded with method to identify influence, influencers, or care, and it can only be created by humans, not easily map your organization’s interactions computer algorithms. with these people and communities. When you start exploring that need to automate parts of Take, for example, the earthquake in Haiti your organization’s social strategy, it’s best to in January 2010. Automation allowed first identify the most time-consuming, non- governments, non-profits, and ordinary interaction-oriented tasks and separate them citizens to band together and streamline their from those requiring real human interaction. activities, allowing one and all to focus on As we said earlier, automation is meant to giving back to their fellow human beings. Brent improve efficiency by assisting with repetitive Leary sums up how humans and machines functions, not replace all external interaction. worked together in this instance for the greater good: As the social media space evolves we’re all crafting the necessary rules of etiquette and adapting them to changing community expectations and knowledge. Unfortunately, “It’s important for us not to hide behind even though we are adapting, there are several technology, but use it to better understand tasks people and organizations are automating each other’s needs. It can be tempting that need to be personalized instead. to substitute technology for a personal connection. Being human can be tough, For instance, it’s best to avoid automating and time consuming, and gut-wrenching, tasks in channels where your community is and taxing, and many other things. And expecting direct and real human interaction or you risk taking away from other areas there are times and instances where we do of successful human-to-human reciprocity. need to utilize technology to make better But if you can effectively mechanize some of decisions, and to get things done quickly and less expensively. We even need it to figure www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 17. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE those tasks you need completed, you’ll have you can do to build on those expectations. more time and bandwidth to engage on a more personal level in those spaces where • Manage Your Accounts: Not your interaction is expected. relationships. There is a time and a place for scheduling tweets and posts, like if you’re Rather than focus on what not to automate, releasing breaking news or you’ve identified let’s talk about the more productive uses for a need for an FAQ-type response. However, automation when engaging with influencers online social networks don’t thrive on and building your own influential content. one-off blasts of info but rather a two-way dialogue. Participating in these channels • Engage Actively: People won’t subscribe immediately sets up the expectation that to your content or “listen” to what you have you are listening and engaging. Establish to say if they believe the information or proper expectations with your community conversation is being generated from the if you plan on automating your social media faceless avatar of Artificial Intelligence. coverage. There’s an expectation for real-time engagement in the social sphere that just • Unify Your Communication Funnel: can’t be ignored or falsified, so meet that Integrate social media interactions into your expectation head-on and get actual people company’s existing communication and within your company talking with your feedback platforms. Spread the word and external community. keep track of those online conversations from A-Z in one platform. These platforms • Personalize Sharing: As we explored in already house a wealth of data from various the previous chapter, people consume and channels. Harness the power of that communicate differently across all social integrated data to discover insights and gain media channels. There are many tools out an holistic view of your influencers and the there that give you the ability to post your impact of your influence. content once and have it be distributed across multiple channels. While this kind of By nature, social media channels foster open automation might increase efficiency and and authentic engagement. Influence is productivity, it will come at the expense of subjective and built up through how others being able to more personally connect with view your interactions with those in the same your influencers, or even be considered circle. If you were to start automating your influential within a specific community and/ responses, you’d lose credibility and work or channel. directly against that widespread expectation of real engagement. Artificial Intelligence will • Know Your Brand: There’s enough “Enough never fully replicate a human reply or properly about me, now let’s talk about me” noise address a need for human engagement, and, no on social networks, and you don’t need to matter how well built, an algorithm just can’t add to that. See, feel, and live your brand deliver an authentic and appropriate response through the eyes of your community. Avoid to the various nuances of the human language. using automation to unleash a barrage of canned responses or self-promotion. Use these channels to discover what others find meaningful and influential and learn what www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6
  • 18. COMMUNITY EBOOK / JANUARY 2011 DEFINING AND MEASURING INFLUENCE What makes those people or brands so influential to you? What turns you off of a CHAPTER 6: THE WRAP-UP person or company? We realize there are a lot of • Give us a shout if any of this doesn’t make sense. No, really. Email us at community@ information and ideas in this radian6.com and we’ll make sure to answer eBook to absorb, and we highly your questions as best as we can. recommend you give yourself Influence is relative to your company and the time and mental space to marketplace, but we hope what’s been outlined here will help you get a firmer grip on do so, because creating a truly how to approach using your ability to influence valuable influencer program that and that of your biggest fans to create positive includes the right metrics for your results for your company. Please be in touch and let us know what’s worked for you. We efforts and the right outreach always appreciate the feedback. tactics for your goals takes great understanding of what influence Find us on the web: is and how it works within your immediate community and http://www.radian6.com Follow us on Twitter: greater market. http://www.twitter.com/radian6 Read the Blog: Here are some tips to help make this all a bit http://www.radian6.com/blog more digestible: • Make sure that you read this eBook at least once without clicking any of the links. Links offer invaluable reference points, but they will inevitably break your focus and train of thought, making understanding all this a bit tougher. • Consider mapping and weighting your own influencer metrics as you read through Chapters 2 and 3. Just as practice. This doesn’t have to be something you submit to your team for review, but it’s worth getting into the practice. • Think about how you, as an individual, influence and are influenced by the people and brands you’ve brought into your life. www.radian6.com 1 888 6RADIAN (1 888 672-3426) community@radian6.com Copyright © 2010 - Radian6