#SMCQ16 On Measuring Influence

July 2, 2009 by Deborah Crooks 

Earlier this week, the SMC Editorial Board posed the question “How do you measure influencers and/or influential social media platforms?” having wondered aloud which combination of measurement and know-how equaled influence. As the community response demonstrated, influence is equal parts quantitative and qualitative. From ‘listening platforms’ such as Radian6, eCairn and ScoutLabs which track and calculate conversation volume, page rank, comments and frequency as well as a host of other data garnered from Sales Force and CRM tools, to  good old intuition, influence is subject to the eye of the beholder. Some notes from the online response field:

“I look for the number of followers and the number of participants who add comments. Equally important is the quality of the content and the comments. They should be well-written, intelligent, supported by references to sources, focus on the positive, succinct, and not reflect a strongly biased opinion.” — James O’Connor, Owner, Clutter Control, O’Connor Communications,

“So effective, efficient messages are key.  Regularly is another.  Transparent, non-promotional communications essential.  Self-effacing humor is nice.  But the most important aspect is just to be a part of the conversation and thought stream.  One person with one comment at the exact right moment in time who we never hear from again can be a profound influencer.” —How Do You Measure Influencers,” by Bob Stewart,

@the_sophist: #SMCQ16 The act of measuriing influence, influences. Especially in the state of social consciousness. u can’t measure u can only approximate

Suggested Reading:

“How to Measure Influence Online,” Mashable, by Micah Baldwin, March 2, 2009

“Do You Know Jack About Social Media Measurement,” MetricsMan, June 15, 2009

“Is PageRank the Ultimate Measure of Online Influence?” Nine By Blue, October 8, 2008

“Social Media Metrics Superlist,” Interactive Insights Group,  by Robin Broitman, February 2nd, 2009

The SMC Editorial Board will be reviewing the responses and talking more about measuring influence, this Friday 10am PST on BlogTalk Radio Social Media Club. We welcome your participation.

Filed Under Industry Standards, Lessons Shared, Question of the Week, Uncategorized, Weekly Question Archive
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Comments

One Response to “#SMCQ16 On Measuring Influence”

  1. Warren Sukernek on July 2nd, 2009 7:25 am

    Deborah,

    Your points about measuring influentials are well taken and quite variable depending on goal, user, and platform. That’s why we track 9 different influencer variables (comments, on topic posts, engagement, follower counts, inbound links, etc) in our influencer EQ widget. That way, our users are able to customize the analysis to their needs.

    As a guidance document, The Influencer Handbook from WOMMA, http://womma.org/influencer/ which I helped write is an excellent source.

    Warren Sukernek
    Director of Content Marketing
    Radian6