Tag Archives: twitter

Online influence measurement: you can’t “count” on the numbers

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The Friendship Algorithm, as seen on “The Big Bang Theory”

It seems that more and more people are relying on numbers to determine online influence lately. They’re interested in Klout scores, numbers of followers, how often things are shared or retweeted, and don’t seem to be looking too far beyond that.

Since there is no definitive algorithm behind measuring online influence, and never will be, we need to do away with this trend in our way of thinking.

No matter how you analyze the numbers (followers, retweets, etc.), you simply can’t determine influence this way. Even if you’re a mathematical genius, there is no formula that can be built on any variation of these numbers to accurately determine influence.

Just because someone has a lot of followers on Twitter, or a high score on Klout, doesn’t mean they are influential.

Case in point

To use David Armano’s (@Armano) example from the Mesh 11 panel with Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge) and Mark Evans (@MarkEvans) titled “How do you (or can you) measure online influence”: Charlie Sheen has over 4 million followers on Twitter, yet has little influence over his following (“Sheen’s Cadres” aside), as far as affecting their actions.

If you are following Charlie on Twitter, it’s most likely because you, like most people in western society, can’t help but get a front row seat to watch as yet another celeb spirals out of control. Does he have influence over your actions though? Not likely… If he does, you may want to see a psychiatrist.

So, what exactly is influence anyway?

This seems obvious, but if it were then this blog post probably wouldn’t be needed. According to Merriam-Webster, influence is:

  1. to affect or alter by indirect or intangible means
  2. to have an effect on the condition or development of

For the purpose of our topic today, it simply means to affect someone else’s actions, by way of a tweet, Facebook update, or blog post (for a few examples).

Pete Cashmore VS. Charlie Sheen

Let’s take a look at two Twitter accounts with very different numbers.

For those who are unfamiliar, Pete Cashmore is the CEO and founder of Social Media site Mashable – one of the most read and shared social media content sites in the world, and the 3rd ranked blog on Technorati’s top 100 blogs list.

Compared to Charlie Sheen’s 4+ million followers, 19+ thousand seems miniscule. Yet Pete has a knack for driving action (aka influencing people) – here are just a couple of recent examples:

Pete mentions a game for the iPad – people check it out.

Pete tweets about the Syrian Revolt and not only does it get retweeted by a number of people, but Alyssa Milano gets on board to show her support too!

Pete is so well respected online that Entrepreneur Magazine turns to him for answers to questions like “who should you be following on Twitter?” Most importantly, people who read the list will follow Pete’s recommendations.

And then there’s Charlie:

This tweet received over 100 retweets, but only two replies… here they are:

Here’s how Pete and Charlie stack up on Klout:

While Charlie’s tweets do often get retweeted by A LOT of people, they don’t typically lead to any form of action. Seeing how he has over 4 million followers, he needs only a small percentage of his following to retweet his messages to appear influential to a tool that calculates influence based on the numbers.

According to Klout, Charlie is more influential than Pete – who do you think is more influential? Does Charlie drive action through his tweets?

How SHOULD we measure influence online?

By digging! I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it will take effort. You have to get in there and research the potential influencer thoroughly before you can really even begin to judge whether they’re influential or not. You have to look far beyond Klout score, or how many followers a person has – these numbers unfortunately aren’t directly indicative of influence. Are tools like Klout useful as a starting point in finding those who may be influential? Absolutely, but that’s a whole other discussion entirely.

When it comes to ranking, you can create a system and put people on a scale of say 1-10 yourself, but not without first digging to see the side of the story that numbers can’t tell on their own.

Here are some of the ways you can look beyond the obvious numbers:

  • What kind of content is the person creating and sharing (quality, focus/niche, credible and sourced, etc.)?
  • How does the content they create relate to what you are planning to achieve? The most effective blogs are often tailored to a very niche audience – is their blog attracting the group of people you want to reach?
  • What kind of engagement does their blog receive – comments? Discussions between readers through the comments?
  • Are people sharing the content through their own networks? (Through Google +1, Facebook “Likes”, Twitter, etc. – this can most often be seen by a counter next to its respective button)
  • Is their content ever picked up, or linked to by other bloggers or even major news outlets?
  • Perhaps most importantly, are they seen as credible? (A look at the tone of the comments and the kinds of comments the blog receives should give an indication of this. People won’t be afraid to speak their mind if they think the writer is full of it).

These are the kinds of things that will help determine just how influential someone really is, in my opinion at least.

How do you determine online influence? Do you have any other tips to add? What are your thoughts on tools like Klout and their importance in determining influence? Please share in the comments!

 

Twitter 101 – best practices for business

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Please note, the tips below are general guidelines only. These are not hard and fast rules – your own business needs and goals should be thoroughly evaluated before developing and diving in to an online communications plan.

I originally wrote and published this article on my employer’s blog, Digital Dialectic.

So you’ve decided to take the plunge and get your business on Twitter. You created an account, wrote-up a nice little bio, added your logo and even had a beautiful custom background image developed for your profile landing page. But what now?

As you are probably aware, Twitter is a powerful tool that can allow you to tap in to the minds of your target demographic in ways never before possible – that’s why you’ve decided to get on board in the first place, right? It also gives you a new means of communicating with them (remember, even in business, Twitter is a platform built for two-way dialogue and should never be used only to promote your business or share your news releases). And, perhaps most importantly, it can give a more human feel to your brand – something that consumers and other businesses seem to be quite receptive to. This can absolutely lead to new business and provide tangible outcomes.

Now, let’s cut to the chase and get in to how you will get there, now that your profile is up, running, and ready to go…

Provide Content – fresh, new, and if possible exclusive. Content is what keeps people coming back to Twitter. Because it’s an instant method for people (and businesses) to share basically anything (videos, pictures, news, etc), it is the first place many people check to get the latest information. That said, share some interesting, fresh content with your followers on a frequent basis – a behind the scenes look at your operations, a look at what your employees are doing in the community, or maybe even a sneak-peek at the development of an upcoming product. This kind of content will keep people coming back to your profile in search of more great, fresh content. It will keep them engaged even more so if you keep this content exclusive to Twitter – after all, sharing fresh exclusive content is really what it’s all about, at the end of the day.

Communicate – listen, respond, and ask questions. It is absolutely imperative that you keep a close eye on what people are saying about your product, company, and/or brand online. Pay close attention and find ways to get involved in the discussion. If someone compliments you, asks you a question, or gives you any kind of feedback at all, respond to them, always. And respond within the first 24 hours – Twitter is about instant connectivity and people will grow impatient very quickly waiting for a reply. Also, as mentioned above, one of the great things about Twitter is the window it opens to give you a view in to the minds of your demographic. Ask your followers questions to get them more involved – “as a lover of @CompanyABC, what’s one thing you would like to see in our next product release?” Use Twitter as more than simply another message broadcast channel and you will find success using it.

Be a leader – display ahead of the pack thinking, and know-how. If your company likes to consider itself a leader in your industry don’t just think it, be it. Provide your followers with insight and know-how that isn’t common. Give insight into the future of the industry (that’s not to say that you should make predictions or loose statements), and more importantly provide knowledge on your products or services that isn’t easily found elsewhere or commonly known.

Reward your followers – discounts, exclusive offers. Above and beyond fresh content, another reason that people will continue to pay close attention to you on Twitter is freebies and offers that they can’t find elsewhere. Provide your followers with a little something extra now and then – a discount/coupon to use on one of your products or services, or an offer that isn’t available from your website or sales staff. Keeping it exclusive is key though, so make sure your offers can’t be found anywhere other than through Twitter. Do this and they will not only come back, but will tell their friends about it, spreading your message through word-of-mouth (inarguably the best kind of marketing available).

Champion your passionate followers – retweet, reply, and give thanks. Those who are passionate about your brand are going to talk about it. And when they do you should publicly share their thoughts by Retweeting what they say. Retweeting not only strokes the ego of the user, which will help ensure that they stay passionate and keep on spreading the good word, but it also shares and spreads that particular message in itself. These same people are also likely to retweet your tweets, in turn spreading your message to their followers who may not otherwise see your message.

When users retweet your original tweets be sure to give them a quick thank you too. Something simple like “thanks for sharing, @twitteruser123” will be just perfect. I have one note of caution with regards to re-Tweeting, replying, and giving thanks, however and that is do it with consistency. If you thank a user once for retweeting, but don’t the next time they do it they may be turned off from sharing your tweets in the future. Twitter is very much a scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours kind of community. Scratch your community’s back and the rewards will be big!

Thank you for reading and be sure to add your own Twitter tips for businesses and other thoughts in the comments!

Adam

Twitter 101 – Sorting Through the Clutter

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I occasionally write posts for my employer’s blog, Digital Dialectic. When I do, I will give them a few weeks to shine over there first, then cross-post them here. Enjoy!

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As a casual user on Twitter, you may often find yourself wondering: “how can I make use of this service in a way that actually benefits me?”

While there are a number of more obvious ways that Twitter can benefit businesses and those that are looking to share a message, while creating conversation, it may not be as obvious how you can benefit as a casual user. And as you follow more and more people and businesses, it will likely become even less clear to you.

This is where lists come in to play. Lists are a way that you can organize the users that you’re following, and filter out some of the noise.  They can be extremely helpful for the user that doesn’t have time to sift through thousands of random tweets, and is looking for something more specific while they are cruising through the Twitterverse. The most simplistic way to look at lists is to see them as a means to organize the tweets that you follow.

By adding the users that you are following to lists that correspond with what they are all about (i.e. news, entertainment, sports, etc.), you can create very specific feeds that will allow you to easily tap into a wealth of information that is of interest to you – quickly and easily.

For example, you may want to keep a close eye on your coworkers that are on Twitter. For that you would create a list called “Coworkers” (for example), and add them to it. Or, maybe you want to keep up on major news headlines. You would find and follow the outlets that you’re interested in and add them to a list called “News Media”.  There are a number of ways to add a user to a list, but for getting started my recommendation is that you do it directly through Twitter.com. Below is an example of how to add a user to a list there: 

Another way to make use of lists and save yourself some time is to follow lists that others have created. Likely the most widely used online tool for this is Listorious. By simply searching the Listorious database, you can likely find lists that encompass what you’re looking for. Try searching “News” to find a list of major news outlets. Below is a screenshot showing you how easy it is to follow a list that someone else has created: 

Once you have created your lists (which you can add other users to at any time), or found the lists that you want to follow, all you need is a good way to view them. A web application that is very popular and widely used comes to mind right away when I think about managing my Twitter feeds: HootSuite. A brilliant (in my opinion), free web application that allows you to organize all of your social media accounts be it Facebook profiles, FourSquare accounts, and in this case, Twitter profiles, HootSuite will make managing and using your lists easy.

With HootSuite, you can easily organize your lists into columns, helping you read and sort through what’s important to you, and leaving all of the random clutter out of the picture. In the image below, you will see one of my current HootSuite set ups, and some of the various lists that I am watching through it:

Once you have a HootSuite account set up, you will see something similar to the image above: this is your dashboard. Simply click on the “+ Add Stream” button (shown above), select the “lists” tab, and choose the list that you want in that column.

As you get savvier in making use of your lists you will find that you can consume more and more useful information while wasting less time sifting through the mess – I hope that this will prove useful to you!

Thank you for reading and be sure to add your own Twitter tips for sorting through clutter and other thoughts in the comments!

(This post was drafted by Adam Weitner, Account Coordinator with Mansfield Communications. Connect with him online by clicking the links below).

@AdamWeitner
adam@mcipr.com