#SMCQ16 How do you measure influence?
June 28, 2009 by Deborah Crooks
Metrics, popularity, comment counts, network buzz or simple word-of-mouth credibility? There are a huge number of factors that go into determining the influence of a blogger or online platform, but how can you tell who or what truly influences both individual and community behavior. What does true influence even mean? On this week’s Social Media Question of the Week call, our Editorial board discussed how we rank influence in an ever-more-vocal online environment. When do you listen and when do you tune out a blogger’s opinion or other online source of information? How do you choose and rate your sources? We want to know:
#SMCQ16 How do you measure social media influencers and/or influential online communities?
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I am basically a newbie at social media, butecause of long time exposure to facebook and my space, I am well versed in cyber-culture and have been for a while.
I facebook several times daily. I post to the wall various types of media, my own text, links to articles and music videos, etc.
What types of coversations work better in getting “likes” and comments are not those but rather simple short phrases focusing on food, recreation, and some kind situation sharing where advice or consoling is the goal. I have posted references to social issues with no response. Trends I notice tend to get more responses. Everyone is becoming more aware of their own mortality as a result of the passing of Michael Jackson and other celebrities. People are going to huddle up and follow these trends instead of more socially relevant but obscure interests
While different personality types have different triggers and attention spans, there is a general standard that large communities instill: conciseness (maintain interest without rambling), challenge ideas not people (the mortar of a virtual community is trust and respect, they are not power structures and don’t tolerate intimidation), logical reasoning (don’t lose the reader with side stories an unnecessary information) and above all, engage the community by addressing comments, concerns and mistakes.
There other standards, but these four tend to be of the most influential in making choice to listen or tune out. The rating of an online source of information then is based on the source’s ability to maintain these standards consistently.
Within my online community I am exposed to some of the larger influencers in the SEO/SEM industry. They may not know exactly who I am but I have sought through hundreds if not thousands of Twitter users and bloggers and found the people out there who are respected, knowledgeable and who influence trends within the industry.
One of the important factors I judge by is the respect they receive by others. This can easily be gauged by how often they are RT’d, mentioned on Twitter, their TweetMeMe counter on their blog etc. If they interact with other influential people in the industry it is another qualifying factor.
There are also hundreds of conferences a year related to social media and SEO/SEM. Often the speakers at these functions are the most influential and popular professionals within their industry. I am not talking about the small advertising agency holding a free webinar that tries to sell you products at the end, I am talking about the innovative leaders that change the way people do business.
Justin
@Justin_Freid
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