Influence. The bullshit, best practice and promise

Philip SheldrakeInfluence Crowd LLPwww.influencecrowd.comwww.socialwebanalytics.comLinkedIn /in/philipsheldrake@sheldrakeInfluence.Today’s bullshit.Today’s best practice.Today’s promise.1

It’s not the number of friends or followers or subscribersIt’s not a sum of Diggs or Reddits or Stumbles or @’s or RetweetsIt’s not Google’s PageRank or SEOmoz’smozRankIt’s not the number of blogs and columns you writeIt’s not the books and papers you authorIt’s not the job you have.… when these things are considered in isolation or out of context.What influence is not…31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales3

Influence is not some quantity invented by a PR firm, analytics provider, or measurement and evaluation company that rolls up a number of indices and measures into some relatively arbitrary compound formula that makes any appreciation of the underlying approach, variables and mathematics completely opaque to the end-user thereby radically attenuating any little use it may have been but in such a way that it can be branded nicely and sold as “unique”.Influence, my arse31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales4

One’s Klout is apparently calculated as*:True Reach + Amplification Probability + Network Score _____________________________________________ x Weights Standard ScoreWhereTrue Reach = degree of engagement (interaction?) of one’s audienceAmplif. Prob. = the likelihood of retweets and generating a responseNetwork Score = the Klout of your audience* http://www.briansolis.com/2009/11/with-klout-comes-influence-measuring-authority-on-twitterCase study 1?eg, “@klout that’s crap” 31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales5Based on..?

Extracts from Social Mention’s FAQs:How does it work? It works just fine, thank you for askingWhat is "strength"? Likelihood that your brand is being discussed in social media (phrase mentions within the last 24 hours divided by total possible mentions)What is "sentiment"? Ratio of mentions that are generally positive to those that are generally negative.Case study 2!?How is sentiment gauged exactly?And how accurately? According to..?31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales6

Cont..What is "passion”? Likelihood that individuals talking about your brand will do so repeatedly.What is "reach"? A measure of the range of influence – the number of unique authors referencing your brand divided by the total number of mentions.Case study 2eg, “@brandx you suck”“@brandx you really suck”So 1 author with 1 mention has a “reach” of 1.0Whilst 5,000 authors and 100,000 mentions has a “reach” of 0.0531st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales7

Micah Baldwin is VP and Lead Evangelist for Lijit Networks*:“Influence = (Personal Brand * Trust * Expertise)Of course, since Expertise = (Knowledge * Trust), we can further refine the equation to:Influence = (Personal Brand * Knowledge * Trust2)…we have defined influence mathematically”.* http://mashable.com/2009/03/02/measuring-online-influenceCase study 3WTF!31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales8

I should add that Klout, Social Mention and the Lijit quotes were selected here simply because they best suited the format of this presentation. There are, unfortunately, many dozens of very similar examples to the point that this nonsense is the norm in my experience.If in doubt about a measure of influence, just ask “How?” and “Why?” a lot and think about the answers.Case studies31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales9

Noun – the power or ability to affect someone’s beliefs or actionsVerb – to exert the power, exercise the abilityIn other words…You have been influenced when you think in a way you wouldn’t otherwise have thought, or when you have done something you wouldn’t otherwise have done. Influence, definition31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales11

“Measuring individual influence in Social Media is as coveted as it is elusive. While many tools claim to calculate authority, it is the definition of influence that requires clarification in order to grasp the relevance and differences of existing tools and services.”Although he doesn’t scorn Klout so much as I have done here… perhaps because he has a high Klout ;-)http://www.briansolis.com/2009/11/with-klout-comes-influence-measuring-authority-on-twitterBrian Solis gets it of course31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales12

We want our publics to: Develop an affinity for our view of the world

Feel compelled to pass that perspective on to others

Recommend our products and services to others But influence isn’t one way (us  our publics) it flows six ways…Influence in typical marketing / PR termsTHOUGHTACTION31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales13

The six influence flows™31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales14

And influence isn’t something the marketing team “does”.Every single interaction in every single way that every single person experiences regarding something they consider to be related to your organisation has the potential to influence in a particular context in a way that’s beneficial or detrimental to your organisation’s objectives.Everyone is an influencer in some way about something at some time.Influence in everything™31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales15

Many attempts to determine influence focus on various qualities of an ‘influencer’, looking for any response of any kind any and every communication might evoke. They are influencer-centric.Eg,“What would I do without my Blackberry. Man’s best friend. [Bob]”“RT @Bob What would I do without my Blackberry. Man’s best friend. [Sue]”Influencer-centric31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales16

But true influence can only be determined by tracing backwards from the action of influence to the cause of the influence. This is influence-centric.Eg,“Steve, I see you’ve just bought a Blackberry. Why? [researcher]”“My friend Bob says they’re fantastic. And pocket-lint gave it 5 stars. [@Steve74]”@bobuk, bobuk.blogspot.com author = Chris Hall at Pocket-lintInfluence-centric31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales17

Maturity of influence approach31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales18

Correct people’s misuse / abuse of the word “influence”Refute immature influencer-centric approaches, “WTF approaches!”, as false idols!Pursue a medium to high maturity approach, one that’s influence-centric, tapping the latest tools and services as they assist you in this endeavour.Action plan today31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales19

In fact, I believe you are better off just doing good work that aligns with the tenets of books such as “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” and “Engage!” for example, and employing best practice measurement and evaluation per “Measuring Public Relations”, than waste time slaving to specious measures.The New Rules of Marketing and PR, David Meerman Scott, John Wiley & Sons, www.davidmeermanscott.com/books.htmEngage, Brian Solis, John Wiley & Sons, www.briansolis.com/booksMeasuring Public Relations, Katie Delahaye Paine, KDPaine & Partners, http://kdpaine.blogs.com/bookblogAction plan today31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales20

Start with the recent purchaser, the person who recently changed his mind, the person recently transformed into an evangelizer. This entails:Finding themTracking them and building a rapport with themGetting them to dig back in their minds, conversations, emails, browser history and magazine rack to unearth the sources of influence.Influence-centric approach today31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales21

The bad news – this approach is harder work!The good news – this approach is core to traditional market researchit is becoming easier with the evolution of new techologies, services and behavioursit works.The bad news and the good news31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales22

You will find the influenced: At the checkout (go to the shop and your web analytics)

Signing off the purchase order (go to the sales office)

Talking about it online (use search and social Web analytics)You will secure their time, energy and participation by offering them something in return, such as a priority customer support telephone number for example, which gives you the opportunity to continue the conversation (see next slide).1. Finding the influenced31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales23

Good social Web analytics services will allow you to keep tabs on @steve75, @bobuk and their other social Web instances.Keep in touch via email, or even telephone if you want to develop the best feel for the process of influence in the context in which you are interested.Deploy a social CRM (sCRM or SRM) approach to keep these ‘one-to-ones’ going; incredibly valuable individually and collectively. Continues the conversational marketing (influence flows 1 & 3).2. Tracking and building a rapport31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales24

Logging is essential for the creation of an extensive database from which you can measureand draw analytical insight. Structured data helps, so look to work from the efforts of thought leaders like James Grunig and Katie Delahaye Paine to help you categorise your findings.Eg, http://kdpaine.blogs.com/kdpaines_pr_m/2008/06/kdpaine-partner.htmlhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/6576129/Grunig-Relationships-Paper3. Log everything31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales25

You could use a web form to allow willing participants to share information with you regarding the way in which they were and are influenced, and this web form can be used to automatically search their browser history for specific URLs, such as to product review sites and blogs you consider might have played a part.I recommend that you DO NOT employ such a tactic without securing the consent of the participant. I believe the vast majority of web users consider their browser history to be theirs and not yours.Ethical considerations31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales26

We don’t measure for measurement’s sake, but because: People perform / behave as they are measured

Improvement demands measurement

People genuinely like sensible and objective measurement when the nature of the cause-and-effect is well understood.The intention of measurement31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales27

Measurement provides dataData feeds visualisation and analysisVisualisation and analysis aids comprehensionComprehension is a requisite of good decision makingGood decision making improves performance.The measurement cascade31st March 2010 / Influence Crowd LLP / Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License 2.0 England and Wales28

Influence. The bullshit, best practice and promise

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