Influence – the use and abuse of the word in social media

Philip SheldrakeAuthor, The Business of Influence

InfluenceThe use and abuse of the word Following “Influence – the bullshit, best practice and promise”

A few questions …What do you think of Adidas?How will you vote at the next election?Why did you see that last film at the cinema?Where would you really like to go on vacation?Which company would you really like to work for?Why did you select those items at the supermarket?Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

Why those answers? Maybe … /1Simple – Because my other half / my mate / my Mum …Complex – For a variety of reasons … some of which are immediately obvious to me, some of which I can sketch out now I think about it, and probably some other things too.Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

Why those answers? Maybe … /2Simple – Because [celebrity name] recommended it …Complex – Er, hmm, well, er, maybe, no, hmm, well perhaps, er … actually, I don‟t really know. Lots of reasons I‟m sure, just none I can pick out.Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

You’ve been influenced, right?Yeah. Guess so.You‟ve been influenced when you think somethingyou wouldn‟t otherwise have thought or do somethingyou wouldn‟t otherwise have done.Sure. I get it.So life is one great mix of influences.Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

So, can I ask you? …Did this lady with an “influence score” of 67 influenceyou more than this one with a score of 66?Did this gent with a score of 60 influence you twice asmuch as this chap with a score of 30?Did your two mates, each scoring 27, influence youless than this 82 scoring “key influencer”?Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

Influence is not …… some quantity invented by a PR firm, analyticsprovider, or measurement and evaluation companythat rolls up a number of indices and measures intosome relatively arbitrary compound formula thatmakes any appreciation of the underlyingapproach, variables and mathematics completelyopaque to the end-user thereby radically attenuatingany little use it may have been but in such a way thatit can be branded nicely and sold as “unique”.The Business of Influence, Sheldrake, Wiley, 2011Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

Influence is complex … /1Complexity is the phenomena that emerge from acollection of interacting objects.For example: Molecules of air => phenomenon of weather Vehicles => phenomenon of traffic Population of Cairo => phenomenon of political uprising.Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

Influence is complex … /2The individual object rarely betrays anything aboutthe phenomena. You cant learn much about the termite mound by studying the individual termite. Or learn about the traffic jam by studying the car. Or learn much about the complex ways influence goes around comes around by studying “key influencers” alone.Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

Nearest and dearestFull GestureCommunication™in UnaugmentedReality™ We are more influenced by the 150 nearest to us thanby the other six or so billion combined.Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

Avoid simple thinkingIf society is ready to embrace a trend, almost anyonecan start one – and if it isnt, then almost no one can. Dr. Duncan WattsThe conclusions of The Tipping Point are overlysimplistic and probably just plain wrong. The Business of Influence, Sheldrake, Wiley, 2011Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

So what about Klout et al? /1 “the standard for influence” / “measures your influence on your social networks” “own your own influence” / Now –> “understand your online social capital” “assemble the collective intelligence, identify its most influential people, and make them accessible for analysis and engagement” / “Kred measures personal Influence and Outreach in social media communities connected by interests” Find influencers who impact your bottom-linePhilip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

So what about Klout et al? /2“For every complexproblem there is ananswer that isclear, simple, andwrong.” H.L. MenckenPhilip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

So what about Klout et al? /3We have no scalable facility to ascertain or infer whoor what caused someone to change their mind orbehavior, without falling into some kind of last-clickattribution trap, so how then can we pretend to scorean individual‟s likelihood to exert that influence, andas if they did so with apparent Newtonian simplicity?We‟ve barely even attempted to correlate proxies forinfluence, assuming that universal correlates evenexist.http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-network/media-network-blog/2012/feb/15/complexity-influence-challenge-opportunityPhilip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

So what about Klout et al? /4Perhaps Klout et al attempt a measure at onlinepopularity, or perhaps online authority, or moreexactly the likelihood to have one’s onlineoutput shared / forwarded.But not one‟s influence.Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

So what about Klout et al? /5The inappropriate use of the word influence isstarting to be replaced with social capital.I prefer that.However, not every social share is accretive to socialcapital. Social capital is destroyed when stuff isshared in disagreement, disgust or mockery.So any measure of social capital that treats negativesocial shares the same as positive social shares isflawed.Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

Influence and organizational objectivesReputation management does not actually meanmanaging reputation, and brand management doesnot actually mean managing a brand.They mean actively attending to the business ofinfluencing and being influenced such that theresultant beliefs or opinions held about us and ourproducts are conducive to our achievingorganizational objectives.Everyone‟s in the business of influence.Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

EngagementWhen Chris Lake, Econsultancy‟s Director ofInnovation, writes: „It‟s all about engagement‟, _and when Katie Delahaye Paine asserts in herpresentation Are We Engaged Yet?: „The definition ofsuccess has changed – The answer isn‟t how manyyou‟ve reached, but how those you‟ve reached haveresponded‟, _they are emphasizing engagement as a measurableoutcome of influence.Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

Influence is everythingThe task at hand is influence (influencing and beinginfluenced) with short- and long-termmanifestations: Shorter-term Longer-term Relevance Reputation Resonance Trust Accessibility Significance Engagement Authenticity Curiosity AuthorityPhilip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

Approaches to influenceInfluencer-centric and influence-centric approaches. High Track the influence (the action) Influence-centric back to source Focused on business outcomes, as we should be! Medium It’s quality not quantity. Not Best practice, intelligent and how many people you interact you could say scientific and with, but who, how and in what professional marketing and PR. context? Low Number of followers, friends, Influencer-centric subscribers, circulation Akin to “column inches” and “advertising value equivalent”. Pitiful Obfuscating compound Measurement because you can measures of non-contextual not because you should. trivial variablesTable 5.1, p47, The Business of Influence, Sheldrake, Wiley, 2011Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

In conclusion /1Focus only on the car and this moment‟s trafficjams, and you don‟t understand the city‟s trafficsystem. If you don‟t understand the traffic, you can‟thope to invest your transport budget effectively.Focus on flawed metrics of “key influencers”, onwhat‟s trending right now, and you don‟t understandthe system of influence. If you have a poor grasp ofthe influence system, you can‟t hope to deploy yourresources effectively.Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

In conclusion /2Successful marketing and PR consultants of the 21st-century will avoid simplistic thinking and hyperbole.They will recognize complexity and navigate itappropriately.As for the analysis firms, long may we have the for-profit motive to explore complexity science andnetwork science, lets just not mis-sell its capabilitiesalong the way.Philip Sheldrake // Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 England & Wales License

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Influence – the use and abuse of the word in social media

by Philip Sheldrake on Jun 15, 2012

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Influence – the use and abuse of the word in social media Presentation Transcript