How to identify online influencers

How to identify online influencersA review of nine social media monitoring tools

Influence is...
... the ability to shape
thoughts, perceptions or behaviour

Every year, 500 billion consumer opinions are shared online
Source: http://www.forrester.com/rb/research

These opinions are having an
impact
on purchase decisions

...making the people who write them influential

This report will help you find your influencers

So you can get the biggest bang for your social buck

So, how do you spot an influencer?

Popularity is an obvious indicator

...but it only tells part of the story

To be influential, a person needs expertise in a specific subject, field or sector

…and an audience who are receptive to their influence

(BTW, it turns out your Facebookrelationship status betrays your susceptibility to influence)
Susceptibility to influence
It’s Complicated
Source: Sinan Aral, http://web.mit.edu/sinana/www/

“Influence is a tricky word. Are the people who talk the most the influencers? Are the people who talk to the most people the influencers? You’d trust Tony Hawk with skateboard advice, but do you trust him for sushi restaurant selection?” Chris Brogan, President New Marketing Labs

So, how do you find influencers online?You could...
Count Twitter followers
Measure Facebook Likes
Look for high Google pageranks
Check comment volume on blog posts
Spend lots of time in relevant forums

...but make sure you’re finding influencers you can actually engage
Popularity
A-List
Long Tail
Magic Middle
Influencers

Hard work, right?

It’s not a perfect science but social media monitoring tools are getting much better at finding the influential needle in the online haystack.
Jay Baer, Co-author of The Now Revolution
Image: Alexander Kesselaar
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/akc77/3370167184/)

So, how did we search for influencers?

We took 9 of the best social media monitoring tools...

...and used them to track down influential mommy bloggers

...who were having conversations about organic baby food.

We ran the tools head to head for 1 month

...scoring them against 6 criteria:

Click for more >>

The tools found topic mentions across different social spaces:

Click for more >>

So, which tool was the best?

Well, that depends what you’re looking for…

Best user experience…
- This was the best tool for finding influencers on Facebook

Best drill down…
- This was the best tool for finding influencers on Twitter

Best for finding influencers on forums…
Forums are a great place to track down influencers
Good tools for detailed results analysis

Most exciting feature…
View the Twitter authority of those who follow influencers
And we loved their mapping tool

Best YouTube and images search…
Simple, inviting and easy to use interface
“Key quotes” & “frequently used words” give a quick overview

Easiest tool to learn how to use…
- The tool is integrated with Klout to identify Twitter influencers

Best segmentation of data…
This tool offered many ways to zone in on different data
Would suit businesses with an analytics team

Best visualization tool…
Great way to see the connections between influencers
Good broad overview of what conversations are taking place

One to watch…
Peer Index identifies the categories in which people are influential
Some great developments in the pipeline for this tool

- Make sure it pulls data from the source you’re interested in, E.g. forums, Facebook or Twitter
- Assess the way it segments and presents data – is it going to fit your requirements?
- Ensure you can drill down into the data to find the detail you want within the results
Choosing the right tool for your needs

- Most of the tools are focused on finding influential websites where you’re likely to find influential people rather than finding influencers themselves.
You’ll still need to do some human analysis before you start approaching influencers
Even then...

Now you’ve found your influencers, what next?

Listen with care
- Read everything they have written
- Read their audience’s comments

Take a light approach
- Comment on appropriate posts
- Try contacting offline or meeting face to face
- Be authentic
- Be clear – What’s in it for them?

Learn more from the detailed report...
Click the icon to download the report
Or visit: http://www.freshnetworks.com/social-media-influencers-2010-webform

We’re a social media agency
We offer software, strategy and support to help
companies be social
About us

www.freshnetworks.cominfo@freshnetworks.com

Baby food: http://www.insockmonkeyslippers.com
American football: http://www.thecoreinstitute.com
Obama with crowd: http://commons.wikimedia.org
White feather: http://wallpaper-s.org
Diving: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture
Other images: http://www.shutterstock.com
Image credits

http://www.ticbeat.com	2996
http://www.readwriteweb.es	789
http://papercliq.com.br	451
http://www.digitalmarketinglab.it	378
http://paper.li	162
http://thecoolruler.blogspot.com	160
http://desarrollo.readwriteweb.es	137
http://larsbas.posterous.com	115
http://thebtllife.blogspot.com	56
http://www.thebtllife.blogspot.com	40
http://us-w1.rockmelt.com	36
http://11karthik.wordpress.com	20
http://huguesrey.wordpress.com	20
http://influencers.typepad.com	20
http://www.thenewgroup.com	17
http://matt-rhodes.tumblr.com	15
http://michaelbatistich.com	13
http://feeds.feedburner.com	11
http://thecoolruler.blogspot.com.es	10
http://twitter.com	7
http://www.magda-kaluzny.de	6
http://espaciodefbalaguer.blogspot.com	5
http://feeds2.feedburner.com	4
http://leblogdenajib.over-blog.com	4
http://miguelhiga7.posterous.com	4
http://www.thecoolruler.blogspot.com	3
http://www.netvibes.com	2
http://thebtllife.blogspot.in	2
http://web.me.com	2
http://thenewgroup.tngprojects.com	2
http://ckfdez.es	2
http://www.thecoolruler.blogspot.com.es	1
http://posterous.com	1
http://espaciodefbalaguer.blogspot.com.es	1
http://archive.feedblitz.com	1
http://www.thebtllife.blogspot.in	1
http://www.espaciodefbalaguer.blogspot.com	1
http://www.twylah.com	1
https://jujo00obo2o234ungd3t8qjfcjrs3o6k-a-sites-opensocial.googleusercontent.com	1
http://fn_site.vm05.fn.internal	1
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How to identify online influencers

by FreshNetworks on Dec 13, 2010

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How to identify online influencers — Presentation Transcript