#SMCQ16 On Measuring Influence

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.

#SMCQ16 How do you measure influence?

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?

How to join the Social Media Clubs Question of the Week discussion: Our goal with the Question of the Week initiative is to create a truly collaborative conversation within and around the most up-to-the-minute issues affecting Social Media. Each week, the Social Media Club editorial board looks at trends, topics and news affecting social media during a Blogtalk Radio broadcast. During the call, the editorial board forms the question. This is where YOU come in: we’d love for you to post your thoughts on your blog, via Twitter or by commenting on the Social Media Club site. Please tag your blogs and posts with a hash tag, ‘#’, so we can track the conversation. For example, if you wrote a response to Social Media Club Question of the Week 13, please tag your post ‘#SMCQ13’ and we’ll be able to find it, track back, and link the post to the original post. Your answers will all be included in the weekly Conversation post & Blogtalk Radio broadcast review of the answers we received. We also invite you to call in to the shows to share your viewpoint. Instructions about how to call in will be given on this site by the end of each week. Thanks for joining the club!

#SMCQ15 On truth-finding

This week’s SMCQ15: How do you know who to trust within the social media environment? was especially pertinent given the dramatic impact Social Media had amidst the election and protests in Iran.  The online conversation and direct responses we received pointed out the need for self responsibility and incorporating a journalistic standard for fact checking.

Have thoughts to share on the subject? Please tune into BlogTalkRadio this Friday, June 26 @ 10am PST as the Social Media Club Editorial Board reviews the conversation. We welcome your input.

Some notes from the online conversation:

“Is Twitter The CNN Of The New Media Generation?,” by Brian Solis, TechCrunch,  June 17, 2009

“Fact checking is a vital part of the news business and is ultimately what separates amateurs from experts. But researching fact from hearsay or even opinion is almost impossible on Twitter for most users. Keen believed that citizen media is corrupting the very institution of news media because most of the individuals publishing information using social tools, he argues in his book, are “grossly misinformed.” While Morris didn’t make the sweeping assertion that Keen expressed, his point is noteworthy and deserves further examination”

“How Not To Be A Social Media Sucker (aka who to trust online),” by Kimberly Turner, Regator, June 25, 2009

“You can guarantee fast or you can guarantee accurate, but you can’t guarantee both. We want things instantly. If a plane landed in the Hudson 30 seconds ago, we want details NOW. Fair enough. But remember, the faster you get your news, the less likely it is to have undergone a fact-checking process. Monthly magazines, for example, often have teams of fact-checkers who verify everything from the spellings of names to the color of a source’s hair if it’s mentioned. This is because monthly publications work several weeks out. There is time for due diligence.”

Iran + Twitter = Trust, But Don’t Verify, by Farel Chideya, The Huffington Post

“So, how do you verify? Well… some people say, just… don’t. It’s a cul-de-sac you can go around again and again. I am not saying don’t follow Twitter (again, that would be useless). I do want to follow Twitter, on #IranElections and all else. What I don’t want to do is give up the idea of verifying information.”

“How Do You Know What Tweets are True? Exactly the Same Way You Source Everything Else” by Sarah Delman, Corporate Memo

“Social media isn’t some separate sphere: it’s similar, in fact, to all other source building. If you don’t know who to trust, online or off, then you’re not doing your job. It’s what reporters do: they figure out who to trust before they need to. You should have built social media sources beforehand in exactly the same way you build offline sources.”

“Twitter and Social Media in Iran,” By Anthony Caruana, Hydrapinion, June 24, 2009

“solely relying on Twitter where particularly poignant or inflammatory Tweets are heavily retweeted doesn’t equate with accuracy.”

Highlights from The Twitter Stream:

@rustytanton There’s nothing in the question to imply that mainstream media or what you hear on the street is superior in any way 

@dwiggins: How different from other sources? Same question. Most folks think answers found on Google correct! Info literacy a core need here.

@znmeb posted twice on the question: I don’t think “social media” are any different regarding trust than any other communication channel”
and, noting need for self responsibility, @znmeb: #SMCQ15 fool me once, shame on you … fool me twice, shame on me

@ baurecom: nowadays you can’t really trust anybody. You have to thoroughly check the validity of the source b4 you broadcast it.

Further Reading

Twitter on the Barricades: Six Lessons Learned, by Naomi Cohen, New York Times, June 20, 2009

“Crisis Communications Online: Social Media Usage during a Crisis with Leysia Palen,” by Eric Schwartzman, On the Record, June 4, 2009

“Thumbs To The News: Public Turns To Twitter,” by Wendy Kaufman, NPR, April 20, 2009

“Finding Truth on the Internet,” Wired, by Louise Witt, September 4, 2004

Have thoughts to share on the subject? Please tune into BlogTalkRadio this Friday, June 26 @ 10am PST as the Social Media Club Editorial Board reviews the conversation. We welcome your input.

#SMCQ15 Who to trust? Verifying social media information

Receiving retweeted information that doesn’t have a clear source, mail from hijacked email accounts and coming across yet another poorly fact-checked blog post represent the down side of the instant information age. How does one determine the accuracy of information found online? And how do you verify sources to ensure that you’re getting the truth, be it business, personal or political? During last Friday’s Question of the Week call, the Social Media Club Editorial Board discussed the conundrum of finding the most accurate sources of news amid a vast ocean of information. Now we want to hear from you. We welcome your thoughts on this week’s question:

#SMCQ15  How do you know who to trust within the social media environment?

Please tag your response, posts and tweets #SMCQ15.

How to join the Social Media Clubs Question of the Week discussion: Our goal with the Question of the Week initiative is to create a truly collaborative conversation within and around the most up-to-the-minute issues affecting Social Media. Each week, the Social Media Club editorial board looks at trends, topics and news affecting social media during a Blogtalk Radio broadcast. During the call, the editorial board forms the question. This is where YOU come in: we’d love for you to post your thoughts on your blog, via Twitter or by commenting on the Social Media Club site. Please tag your blogs and posts with a hash tag, ‘#’, so we can track the conversation. For example, if you wrote a response to Social Media Club Question of the Week 13, please tag your post ‘#SMCQ13’ and we’ll be able to find it, track back, and link the post to the original post. Your answers will all be included in the weekly Conversation post & Blogtalk Radio broadcast review of the answers we received. We also invite you to call in to the shows to share your viewpoint. Instructions about how to call in will be given on this site by the end of each week. Thanks for joining the club!

RE: SMCQ14 Dumbing Down or Getting Smart?

“Now along comes Twitter, which totally reduces our collective thought leadership to 140 characters or less and in doing so, belittles and minimizes every big thought into a punch line or social limerick. It’s premature articulation if you ask me and it’s very unsatisfying.” — Joseph Jaffe, “Blogging is Dying, Twitter is to Blame,”

In this week’s question, the editorial board asked “What are the consequences of exposure to a constant high-volume stream of info?”#SMCQ14

A quick tour of the blogosphere (I picked up one actual book this week, a novel, which give you a hint of how much information I get online), revealed many pundits, theories and postulations on how hyperconnectivity may be damaging our ability to pay attention as much as it opens up a door of infinite knowledge.  We’ll be summarizing the comments we received, but in the meantime, here are some notes from the field:

“I learned that instant feedback from the web had caused me to change the “voice” of my writing.   Over time I had learned how to post messages and content that maximized chances of “retweets” “blog postings” , blah, blah, blah.Instead of saying what I believed - I was writing based on what I thought the audience wanted.  The result was a “dumbing down” of my messages.  And, a lack of authenticity.“ —Doug Hall, “Why Instant Feedback on the Internet Can be Bad,” Communty Marketing Blog

“In the digital age, with its overabundance of information, the modern newsweekly is in a particularly poignant position. Designed nearly a century ago to be all things to all people, it Chaplin-esquely tries to straddle thousands of rapidly fragmenting micro-niches, a mainframe in an iTouch world. The audience it was created to serve—middlebrow; curious, but not too curious; engaged, but only to a point—no longer exists.”—Michael Hirschorn,  “The Newsweekly’s Last Stand,” The Atlantic

“Multitasking messes with the brain in several ways. At the most basic level, the mental balancing acts that it requires—the constant switching and pivoting—energize regions of the brain that specialize in visual processing and physical coordination and simultaneously appear to shortchange some of the higher areas related to memory and learning. We concentrate on the act of concentration at the expense of whatever it is that we’re supposed to be concentrating on. ” —by Walter Kirn, “The Autumn of Multitaskers,” The Atlantic

“The sheer volume of information which many of us are exposed to every day may actually impair our performance and add stress to our lives.” Data Smog (thanks @matt_klein)

Have thoughts to share on the subject? Please add your comments or tune into BlogTalkRadio this Friday @ 10am PST.

#SMCQ14

SMCQ14 Media overload? Consequences of the stream

At the same time social media has created a wealth of opportunities to create, consume, interact and react to information, the diversity of media can be staggering as quantity and immediacy often overshadow quality. The Social Media Editorial board discussed how this ‘web of now’ is trumping deeper context and how exposure to a constant stream of information may be shaping our behavior for better or for worse.

We’d love to hear how you are making meaning in an increasingly shallow media landscape. What have we lost, if anything, and what are we gaining? Do you have any strategies for negotiating media overload? We’d love your comments on our 14th Question of the week:

SMCQ14 What are the consequences of exposure to a constant, high-volume stream of media and information?

How to join the Social Media Clubs Question of the Week discussion: Our goal with the Question of the Week initiative is to create a truly collaborative conversation within and around the most up-to-the-minute issues affecting Social Media. Each week, the Social Media Club editorial board looks at trends, topics and news affecting social media during a Blogtalk Radio broadcast. During the call, the editorial board forms the question. This is where YOU come in: we’d love for you to post your thoughts on your blog, via Twitter or by commenting on the Social Media Club site. Please tag your blogs and posts with a hash tag, ‘#’, so we can track the conversation. For example, if you wrote a response to Social Media Club Question of the Week 13, please tag your post ‘#SMCQ13’ and we’ll be able to find it, track back, and link the post to the original post. Your answers will all be included in the weekly Conversation post & Blogtalk Radio broadcast review of the answers we received. We also invite you to call in to the shows to share your viewpoint. Instructions about how to call in will be given on this site by the end of each week. Thanks for joining the club!

Conversation SCMQ13: Social or Socialism

“When masses of people who own the means of production work toward a common goal and share their products in common, when they contribute labor without wages and enjoy the fruits free of charge, it’s not unreasonable to call that socialism.” — “The New Socialism,” by Kevin Kelly, Wired.

This article prompted much conversation when it was published in May, which led the editorial board to this week’s question. However, when we asked point-blank whether Social Media was indeed the new Socialism, most SMC readers noted more differences than true parallels:

“It isn’t the new socialism. If anything, it’s the new expression of liberty — commented Allen Taylor on our blog.

“I think that politics of the internet are - and have always been - closer to pure Anarchism than anything else. Socialism is mandatory, and based on coercion. Therefore, the analogy to the Net instantly falls apart.” —Alex

“Socialism’s hallmark is government control of industry and other aspects of society. Our government would have to be in control of our activities and dictate them to some extent. In fact, social media’s ability to connect people for collaboration outside of the reach of government’s tentacles makes social media anti-socialist,” —Shaine Mata

@matt_j_kendall: “With no allegiance to state or market, could it b a 3rd way? ”

And some posed that it perhaps wasn’t completely relevant to even bring political labels into the conversation:

“If my research showed me anything, it’s that the word itself—no matter how accurate or inaccurate—is too charged to be of much use to us in this context.” — Kimberly Turner wrote on Regator. Kimberly  also conducted a slew of research tagged on Delicious that you may want to read. We’ll be fielding calls to further discuss Social-or-Socialism, this Saturday, June 13, 10am PST on BlogTalk Radio. We invite you to listen, and call in, and share your thoughts.

Want to Join the Question of the Week Editorial Board?

Love, appreciate and use Social Media for both work and personal use as well as talking and blogging about it? Interested in trends affecting the social media industry? Want to help shape the Social Media Club Question of the Week initiative? We’re looking for a few new members to round out our Editorial Board and that could be you.
Launched at SXSW ‘09, the goal of the Social Media Club Question of the Week is to create a hub of conversation for best practices regarding New & Social Media around the globe. As you’ll see if you visit the SMCQ Archive, the blog features links to board and reader posts, comments, polls, presentations and Tweets in response to the questions we pose each week. The goal is to create a real-time archive of the discourse surrounding new media as it evolves. SMC Editorial Board members participate in a weekly call and are strongly encouraged to do research and post on topic during the week. If you’re interested in being considered, please write deborah@socialmediaclub.org and include information about your participation in social media thus far, links to your sites and any questions you may have.

#SMCQ13 Is social media the new socialism?

“Just like the ant-communist Red Scares of the early part of the century,  Republicans today are throwing about ’socialism’ as the great ‘Blue Scare,’” noted Chris Heuer, during the Social Media Club Editorial Board’s weekly discussion.
The comment was inspired by one of the more compelling surveys of Social Media published in the most recent issue of Wired, called “The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society is Coming Online,” by Kevin Kelly, May 22, 2009. Given the heavy baggage that the term holds, we wonder if such a tag will help or hinder all that social media has to offer society. That said, if Social Media — with its distributed power, collaborative, communal aspects  — isn’t socialism, what is it? And if it is the new socialism, how do we leave the worst of socialism’s reputation behind?

So we’re curious to know how you answer this weeks Question of the Week:

#SMCQ13 Is social media the new socialism?

We welcome your comments, posts & tweets. Tag: #SMCQ13

How to join the Social Media Clubs Question of the Week discussion: Our goal with the Question of the Week initiative is to create a truly collaborative conversation within and around the most up-to-the-minute issues affecting Social Media. Each week, the Social Media Club editorial board looks at trends, topics and news affecting social media during a Blogtalk Radio broadcast. During the call, the editorial board forms the question. This is where YOU come in: we’d love for you to post your thoughts on your blog, via Twitter or by commenting on the Social Media Club site. Please tag your blogs and posts with a hash tag, ‘#’, so we can track the conversation. For example, if you wrote a response to Social Media Club Question of the Week 13, please tag your post ‘#SMCQ13’ and we’ll be able to find it, track back, and link the post to the original post. Your answers will all be included in the weekly Conversation post & Blogtalk Radio broadcast review of the answers we received. We also invite you to call in to the shows to share your viewpoint. Instructions about how to call in will be given on this site by the end of each week. Thanks for joining the club!

Conversation 12: Empowering the workforce with social media

SMCQ12 How are companies using social media to empower their workforce

Last week, the SMC Editorial board focused on how to best provide education toward preparing for the workplace of the future. This week, we realized, much of that future workplace is happening NOW. And many companies, comprised of employees representing several different generations of the education system, are slow to embrace (or are simply having a hard time getting their arms around) social media tools. At the same time some companies are stymied by fear of the new, weariness about getting too much information or concern that the use of social media at work will cut into productivity, others can’t imagine a desktop without several browser tabs opened displaying common social media URLs.  Is there a sweet spot for using social media at work?  If so, we’d love for you to share your tips. Which leads to our Social Media Question of the week #12:

#SMCQ12 Find examples of how organizations are empowering their workforce with [using] social media?

Please tag your posts, Tweets & comments #SMCQ12. On Friday, the board will reconvene to review your responses.

SMCQ11 Preparing for the workplace of the future

SMC members and readers had far ranging responses to the topic of educating toward a future workplace we can only begin to imagine. From teamwork to new media tools, online training to new models of socializing youth, its clearly a topic ripe for discussion and innovation. One common denominator among our respondents: a need to listen to the student as much as instruct.

Notes from the field:

On what we need to to:

“What do we need to teach kids? How to solve problems, work in teams, and access information to succeed. At present, that’s not what schools teach.” — Francine Hardaway

“…the real question is to ask how can we get the younger generation to teach educators and businesses about using social media” — Peter Williams

“We need to shift managerial thinking from a “sage on the stage” mentality to a “guide on the side” where we actively learn from our newest employees and find ways to incorporate their communication styles and approaches into “older” ways of thinking.” — Amy Smith

“Only by identifying what products and services will be in demand in the future, can we anticipate the type of goods that will need to be produced and the type of employee that will be needed to supply businesses who will produce things to meet society’s needs going forward. — David Ligon , http://etoolkit.org/etoolkit/

What some are already doing:

“At Laguna Playhouse, I use college interns and empower them with the responsibility of monitoring and updating all of our social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Myspace, etc), so they have first hand experience of how to incorporate social media into the workplace.” — Christopher Trela

“Has anyone heard of Skoodat? It’s a brand new application using Salesforce.com and their software which will allow schools to provide leadership training to staff and monitor individual students skill sets before stepping foot in the classroom.” — Jessica Murray

More than one Twitter respondent pointed out a recent post on Business Week by  Jim Goodnight and Keith Krueger that took a deeper look at the issue as well as government involvement and support:

“Why Obama Can’t Ignore Education Tech“ Business Week, 12/25/2008

“School technology investments enable 21st-century learning and provide our current and future workforce with the tools they need to compete and succeed in our globally integrated world. To accomplish this goal, Obama’s reported $850 billion Economic Recovery Plan should include two critical components: 1. Investments in school technology and broadband; and 2. Investments in home-to-school technology targeted at low-income families. Specifically, the federal stimulus package should cover expenses for schools to install or upgrade Internet connections to broadband; hire technical and instructional technology support; and purchase or upgrade hardware, software, and services.”

Noded! The Way We Work

This is an interview with Jaan Orvet from Noded about his book and the model behind their Noded business network. Rather than working in hierarchically driven organizations or in a distributed team, Jaan and his colleagues each work as nodes within a trusted network. Each are free to bring work in, turn work down or do what they want. In looking at preparing students for the modern workforce this week with our Social Media Club Question of the Week, I thought it important to take a look at this modern way of working. #SMCQ11

This model is very similar to what I have been doing with AdHocnium, except they have no central entity at the heart of the organization. This is small pieces, barely joined (except by trust) as opposed to our approach of pieces loosely joined. (small semantical difference, but important).

Please check them out, and check out the book if you are interested in working the Noded lifestyle too! Social Media Club members can buy the e-book for only $15.

SMCQ11: How do we educate the younger generation to prepare for the modern workforce?

Not so long ago, Social Media didn’t register as a factor in the professional world. Fast forward to today, and social media has become a valid sector of the communications industry. Marketing, business and how we interact across and within our various personal and professional communities have undergone a huge overhaul, but whether education is keeping up is subject to debate. The Social Media Club editorial board convened last week to mull the current educational landscape for social media. How would you go about developing a curriculum to teach social media business and communications practices? And given that the field is so recent, who is qualified to teach and mentor students? Do you have any ideas on how to educate our youth? We gladly welcome your thoughts, creativity and considerations on this weeks question:

#SMCQ11 How do we educate the younger generation to be ready for the modern workforce?

Please tag your comments, posts and Tweets on the matter as #SMCQ11 and stay tuned for a report later in the week.

SMCQ10: Free content, friend or foe? The jury is out

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