Peterson: We are cautious to separate "influence in Twitter" from influence in the "real world." In Twitter we see the measurement of influence as relatively simple --- if you have influence over people they are going to either engage you in conversation (@mention you) or retweet the things you are saying. Influence in the "real world" is either incredibly easy or nearly impossible to determine. It is easy to determine in that key public figures clearly hold influence over our lives --- say, for example, President Barack Obama. When President Obama makes a decision, those decisions influence hundreds of millions or billions of lives across the globe, and that influence can be measured in hundreds of different ways.
Schaefer: Most people would point to influence as an ability to persuade another person to take action. On the social web, however, I also think there is a matter of degree. It is one thing to get people to "like" a cause on Facebook and quite another to open their checkbook and volunteer their time. I think you also have to consider the intensity of the action.
Dig Deeper: How to Measure Your Brand's Online Influence
Why Social Influence Matters to Businesses: How Social Media Has Changed the Way Influence Works
Monahan: The social web has democratized influence and diluted its primary motive. The previous motive was to get legacy media paid-laid-made. Influence is now used (more purely) to create revolution, educate, entertain, drive culture, build brands and (even) sell products.
Roen: The role of the influencer remains the same as does the end goal – create buzz, increase traffic and drive sales. The difference comes in the amplification of the message. The advent of Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels has allowed influencers to extend their reach to a broader but still targeted population of consumers. Social is enabling an individual to topple a government or raise millions for a charity practically overnight. Businesses may not have supreme power, but they can work with those that do, the individual influencer.
Auditore: Social media has made influence spread at the speed of the Internet, the only thing holding it back is the time zone we live in. Influence now flows like water everywhere their isn't censorship. Everyone is a journalist but not everyone has a story to tell, so their influence may wain.
Watts: I don't think we know, but one very interesting aspect of social media is the growth of "masspersonal" communication: an interstitial mode of communication that lies somewhere between the traditional categories of personal and mass communication. Celebrities like Lady Gaga, for example, have always had followings, and therefore some manner of influence, but until recently their communication with their fans was almost always indirect, inter-mediated by whatever mass media channel was talking about them. Now Lady Gaga can communicate directly with millions of her Twitter followers, and if she wants, follow them in turn. It's still not clear how this has changed the kind of influence she might have, but it's pretty interesting nonetheless.
Dig Deeper: How to Get Retweeted
Why Social Influence Matters to Businesses: The Metrics That Matter When Measuring Influence
Fernandez: There are lots of signals of influence online. Likes on Facebook to retweets on Twitter for example. The one thing we found that does not fully tell the story of influence is network size. At Klout we go beyond simple counting of metrics to look at how engaged people are with the content you create. It's important to understand what proportion of a person's content actually drives actions and how influential are the people taking those actions. We actually measure influence between each relationship so we can say how much a person influences you versus all the other people you are connected to.
Watts: Ideally what we should be measuring on is the effects of influence: whether someone has actually taken an action they would not otherwise have taken, changed their mind about an issue or a brand, or otherwise been impacted. Unfortunately measuring effects is extremely difficult, and tracing them to the influence of another individual (or for that matter an ad or article, or some other piece of information) is even harder. So what people tend to do instead is measure proxies for influence, like how many followers someone has on Twitter, or how active they are online, or how many of their peers name them in a survey of people they would go to for advice.
Leaman: It depends on the kind of influence you're talking about. If it's influence about brand perception for example, then social media listening platforms that aggregate brand mentions and apply sentiment analysis can help. Measuring how influence results in purchase conversions is much more difficult, but we're getting there. In the PostRank world, we focus on influencers who create content, and how that content is engaged with across the social web (where, by who, how many times) as a measure of the influence of the author (and therefore his/her message). We think that's critically important when trying to figure out who is actually being listened to; if their content is proliferated through the social networks, we can tangibly measure that spread.
Dig Deeper: 11 Best Web Analytics Tools
Why Social Influence Matters to Businesses: The Most Effective Ways for Companies to Engage With The Right Influencers
Watts: First, they need to be very clear what it is they're trying to accomplish. Then they need to identify which metrics actually measure progress with respect to their real goals, not just proxy measures that may or may not be directly related. Then they need to design and conduct experiments that discover which kinds of influencers most effectively increase those metrics. And finally, because the most effective influencers may also be the most expensive to recruit, they need to balance effectiveness against cost, ultimately maximizing efficiency. None of this is easy, but it's increasingly possible. The essential first step is recognizing that our intuition about influence is hopelessly misleading, and our definitions of influencers are woefully inadequate. So if companies want to discover how much and what kind of influence different categories of influencers actually wield, they will need to be very precise about their hypotheses, and they will need design very clear, empirical tests.
Fernandez: Companies need to really respect that influencers have built a level of trust with their network that can never be compromised. It is important that it is made clear to the influencer that they are free to say whatever they want about their experience with the company. Companies also need to be very mindful that influencers are people. Dealing with an influencer is very different than dealing with the New York Times or an influential publication. A personal touch that lets the influencer know that they are respected goes a long way.
Schaefer: So far it seems that companies are using traditional methods, that is to say, ineffective methods to reach influencers! Now that I have been determined to be an "influencer" on Twitter and through my blog, I am receiving a continuous stream of unwanted offers from strangers. If you really want to connect with people, develop a relationship and get to know them, just like you would in any other business setting.
