By
adminbest practice,
brandwatch,
building social media,
Communication,
david laud,
influence,
klout,
kred,
peerindex,
relationships,
reputation management,
smartphone,
social media,
social media analysis,
social media best practice,
social media marketing,
social networking,
solicitors,
thought leadership,
time management,
tweet,
twitter Prior to all things going digital and smartphones embedding themselves in our lives, we had a simpler more straightforward life. In the past your number of friends could be counted in birthday or Christmas cards or the entries in the address book you kept in the draw of the table in the hall, the one your phone sat on, plugged in to the wall.
The number of business relationships were similarly measured in cards that you bothered to retain, small enough to fit in a wallet or a specially designed holder that you could flick through.
As we all know the number of true friends or meaningful commercial contacts you have does not equate to how effective you are in business. Similarly with social media our effectiveness in this medium is not due to how friendly we are but how much value we offer those we’re connected to.
Due to terms such as “friends” on Facebook many are still confused as to the type of relationships they are developing online but there is a very clear distinction. To prove the point there’s a physical limit to how many people we, as humans, can maintain valuable inter-personal relationships with. At the risk of getting all anthropological with you, there’s real sound research supporting this view.
The science behind this is a calculation known as Dunbar’s number. It’s the limit to the number of people who we can keep regular social relationships with and the range has been static for thousands of years. Professor Robin Dunbar has determined that the number of inter-personal relationships we can maintain falls between 100 and 230. It’s therefore a fallacy to think you can realistically build a network of close contacts that count much more than 200 in total.
For those of us looking to social media for a return on business investment we need to look beyond simply acquiring followers. The true power of the medium is not how many individuals are following, connecting or friending us but the influence of those in our network relative to our own interests. It is the members reach and collective power applied across multiple networks that offer the greatest opportunity.
Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” makes frequent references to how ideas and products catch on by this use of social group dynamics and the manner in which information transmits throughout a group driven by those who have influence such as connectors and mavens.
As a simple example look at the way in which profile pictures quickly adapt to respond to a topical cause, or event. 26 million Facebook profiles used a rainbow filter in honour of Pride and support of the LGBT community. But be careful when you see a bandwagon approaching, such profile changes can backfire as David Cameron can testify with his recent photo-shopped poppy.
The challenge is to create receptive networks built on mutual understanding and respect in which you can establish a position as a thought leader, originator, sharer and supporter of fellow members.
Great! You may say, but how do I know if I’m moving in the right direction if I can’t count the number of contacts as a measure?
The answer is to use a measurement tool. One of the leaders in this influence measurement field is Klout, launched in 2008 it delivers its services via a website and app that use social media analytics to rank users according to online social influence. They analyse activity across multiple sites that include Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Google+. The “Klout Score”, is represented by a numerical value between 1 and 100.
In preparing this article I spoke to Eddie McGraw Director of Communications at Lithium Technologies, owners of Klout, this is what he had to say on the topic of influence.
Influence can be a somewhat hazy term, but how we define it is the ability to drive action. That’s something we can actually quantify – how much your social activity is able to drive subsequent activity. It’s very important for both people and brands to have some gauge of who is and is not influential, so they can determine who the right people are that they should be engaging with.
Also, just as important as overarching influence would be subject matter influence – or what we call Topic Expertise. Kim Kardashian has 31 million followers, but that doesn’t mean people should look to her for advice on whether to invest in Apple or Google. One of the things we’ve just introduced is a way of looking not just at someone’s overall Klout Score, but at their level of expertise on a specific topic. This way you can find subject matter experts on the topics you most care about.
As Eddie states it’s not all about the numbers of followers or connections, the key is in establishing your clear area of expertise and thereby your range of influence. Understanding where you are with regard to influence can help you better understand the effectiveness of your time posting content, improving the return for your efforts. To put a number on it, the average Klout score is around 40. To establish where you or your firm sits versus competitors you can search twitter accounts via the Klout website.
Increasingly brands and industry experts are becoming aware of the importance of social influence. Leaving social media content creation to inexperienced, untrained or poorly managed individuals is now seen as far too risky for firms wishing to establish a consistent and respected brand. In professional services, networks will look for and respond more favourably to a tone of voice combining intellect, empathy and personality with a dash of appropriate humour. The trend is for owners of the business to start engaging more directly as they have the knowledge and gravitas to attract greater numbers of key target followers for their network. By way of contrast, posting grammatically poor tweets about minutiae or blatant and repeated promotions, will have your network unfollowing in numbers.
Outsourcing the responsibility of social media posting to an agency, no matter how attractive, is also not advisable, as the risks far outweigh the benefits. In professional service marketing above many other sectors, your credibility can be very quickly undermined if the voice of your chosen channels lacks authenticity. Better to invest in qualified support and training for your own team and remain in control.
As a marketer one of my regular requests is to help clients build strong networks and then assist them to deliver fresh, interesting content in a manner that helps improve engagement. By taking structured consistent steps and increasing the profile and social influence of partners, managing partners and specialists, the firm is better placed to demonstrate their capabilities and attract greater levels of interest.
Whilst I would stress that these tools are not 100% perfect, they do offer an essential insight to establish where your profile stands by way of influence and by regular monitoring keep track of your progress.
Suggested social influence measuring tools – Klout, Kred/ Sprout Social, Peerindex (Brandwatch)
David Laud
Partner i2i Marketing Management
