ARF Social Media Insights: Can Social Media Effectively Track Influence? - Lynne d Johnson - MediaBizBloggers

Lynne39s full commentary can be read at httpwwwjackmyerscomcommentaryARF97963394htmlThere39s an ongoing debate about whether influence can be tracked via social media At its core the issue revolves around the lack of a common definition for influence I39m on the side of quality over quantity where influence is more about overall impact than number of followers or fans or even clicks There are definitely instances where quantity will trump quality and in the advertising business those instances happen far more often because we measure in terms of ROI Is social media helping us shift away from this kind of thinkingI39m at a crossroads with this because the current work that the ARF is doing with the ANA and WOMMA is to create a social media measurement guideline For the ARF39s stake in this project I39m advocating heavily to build off the work of Razorfish39s Social Influence Marketing Score and Altimeter39s Social Marketing AnalyticsWith the first it39s possible to look at both the online and offline share of voice reach of conversations that a brand has along with sentiment or likability for the brand positive negative and neutral mentions to determine the brand39s SIM Score In essence the SIM Score is an accounting of your brand health think of it as your social influence market share And it39s a viable framework given what it sets out to achieveWith the other Altimeter and Web Analytics Demystified developed a framework that considers social media measurement means different things to different people and that no one social media analysis solution fits all This framework looks at how a number of KPIs correspond to specific business objectives including quotFostering Dialogquot quotPromoting Advocacyquot quotFacilitating Supportquot and quotSpurring Innovationquot For each KPI such as quotShare of Voicequot quotAdvocate Influencequot quotSatisfaction Scorequot and quotSentiment Ratioquot there is a numerical modelThese two frameworks lend credence to the idea that there are methods for determining influence via social media But how can we understand or determine the qualitative side of social mediaSince it39s the realm of the fuzzy stuff it39s often left to researchers who study consumer insights and behaviors Yet for marketers this stuff is important too It39s not solely about understanding how many clicks an Alist influencer can drive but also why that specific influencer drives so many clicks If we39re only looking at clicks then we39re looking at social media through the same lenses that we39ve used for measuring other forms of media Those older models can39t explain the phenomenon of someone or a brand with a smaller pool of followers getting more clicks on a link than one with a larger pool How can those methods measure value and trust Looking at Nielsen and Facebook39s recent work on understanding the value of earned media it seems high time we move beyond this mode of thinkingSocial media is becoming the space where we look closer at relationships and actions to determine behaviors It39s where influence is an outgrowth of the strength of relationships and connections And while I strongly believe that numerical data can tell us the story of social media it only tells us part of the storyFor instance Fast Company magazine39s recent launch of its Influence Project has quite a few social media pros up in arms Amber Naslund Director of Community for Radian6 questions the methodology writingquotTo me influence isn39t about popularity Or even reach It39s about the trust authority and presence to drive relevant actions within your community that create something of substancequotThe magazine39s experiment is measuring influence by tracking links to a profile as well as how many new registrants sign up because they39ve followed that profile But is that influenceIn measuring social media we have to listen observe and study to understand who the real influencers are Influence isn39t always driven online but often it39s driven offline Here39s where Razorfish39s SIM Score or perhaps Altimeter39s Social Marketing Framework can help us capturealong with the aid of engagement in a private community an interview or surveythe offline componentWhat Naslund39s argument also bears to light is that we should think about separating influence from virabilityviralness when we39re measuring influence in terms of social media Many social media failures here and here generated a lot of buzz that ultimately reflected poorly on the brandLet39s consider what Geoff Livingston writes in his post quotThe History of Influencer Theory on the Social Webquot quotSo who39s right Where39s influence the uberconnected one percenter trust agent free agent Or the person who lights the spark within hisher community of 150 Well both arequotIt39s not always about how many people are telling your story or how many people they39re telling it to but it should be about what they39re telling them and who they39re telling It39s the quality of the story and the relatioships that will bring about engagement and connect you with the right influencers who will convert others to become brand advocates That39s how companies should look at developing relationships with consumers and potential consumers and also how they should think about measuring those relationshipsLynne39s full commentary can be read at httpwwwjackmyerscomcommentaryARF97963394html Lynne d Johnson is SVP Social Media for the Advertising Research Foundation She can be reached at lynnethearforg and on Twitter lynneluvahRead all Lynne39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at ARF Social Media Insights MediaBizBloggersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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