{"id":5630,"date":"2014-10-21T13:22:56","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T13:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=5630"},"modified":"2014-12-20T16:33:38","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T16:33:38","slug":"without-context-influence-falls-flat-via-insidecxm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/without-context-influence-falls-flat-via-insidecxm\/","title":{"rendered":"Without Context, Influence Falls Flat ~via @InsideCXM"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"shutterstock_181374353\"<\/a><\/div>\n

When you\u2019re looking for social influencers in your niche to connect with and engage, where do you start? Most people make a beeline for the flashy, neon lights of the follower count. While that mayseem<\/em>\u00a0a logical place to start, it\u2019s really a\u00a0flawed metric.<\/p>\n

First, anyone with a bit of internet know-how and disposable income can inflate their follower count quite easily, generally with followers who\u2019ve got zero interest in what they\u2019ve got to say. Then, there\u2019s the matter of celebrity. Movie stars, athletes, artists, and other public figures often pile up followers simply by being themselves. Does that make them influential?<\/p>\n

Maybe in a narrow sense. If your favorite musician hypes a new, unknown band on Twitter, you might be more likely to check that band out. That\u2019s not the kind of influence we\u2019re talking about, though. Joshua St. Aubin has a\u00a0great post about this<\/a>\u00a0on his blog. In it, he compares the follower count of CMOs from popular companies like Google and Mashable to an almost random cross-section of famous people like Katy Perry and well-followed accounts you likely didn\u2019t know existed. The CMOs fare pretty poorly in the comparison. However, that doesn\u2019t mean you should turn to Katy Perry for marketing tips!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s All About Context<\/p>\n

Ultimately, follower counts reveal more about popularity than they do about influence. Influencing thoughts, ideas, trends, and so on requires genuine, personal interaction. It\u2019s tough to influence people only by\u00a0telling them what to do. So if you want to find the real influencers, you\u2019re going to have to dig a little deeper than follower counts.<\/p>\n

You can start by looking at\u00a0following<\/em>\u00a0counts. Not a perfect number, for many of the same reasons mentioned with follower counts, but it does shed some light on whether a person is willing to reciprocate. Profile pages also contain some clues. Does the profile invite people to engage in clear terms? Is it friendly? Admittedly, \u201cfriendliness\u201d is a subjective measurement, but you know it when you see it.<\/p>\n

Still, even the most inviting profile is of little use if the potential influencer doesn\u2019t follow through on its contents. That\u2019s why the best place to gauge influence is\u00a0the person\u2019s public interactions on the medium. When someone sends a public message, does it get a prompt, personal response? Can you quickly find regular, two-way interaction when you scroll through their feed?<\/p>\n

Look for interactions that don\u2019t begin and end with a sales pitch. Find accounts that offer true value to connections and speak on common ground. Influence is a two-way street, and\u00a0you\u2019ve got to give something to get something.<\/p>\n

Most of the time you\u2019ll be able to get a contextual read on influence pretty quickly, simply by paying close attention to how a person interacts. If you\u2019re still unsure, scan the person\u2019s feed, find a common interest and send them a message. The response, or lack of one, will be revealing.<\/p>\n

Build Relationships, Not Follower Counts<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re trying to build influence, and via that enhance the customer experience, or looking for influential people to engage\u2026 focus on relationships. Common ground is always there, waiting to be found. There are no shortcuts in building meaningful relationships, and there\u2019s no magic secret, either. All you\u2019ve got to do is be human, be nice, and listen. Look for the same traits when you\u2019re searching for influencers.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no tidy metric to measure meaningful relationships, but you\u2019ll start seeing results almost as soon as you commit to the process. In the end, your\u00a0Return on Relationship, #RonR<\/a>, will always trump the meager results that come with trying to win the popularity contest.<\/p>\n

Originally posted Sep 30, 2014 on Inside CXM<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you\u2019re looking for social influencers in your niche to connect with and engage, where do you start? Most people make a beeline for the flashy, neon lights of the follower count. While that mayseem\u00a0a logical place to start, it\u2019s really a\u00a0flawed metric.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,7],"tags":[1370,217,358,479,30,1899],"class_list":["post-5630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-tedrubin","tag-ronr","tag-cmo","tag-relationships","tag-ror","tag-social-media","tag-tedrubin-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5631,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5630\/revisions\/5631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}