Top Influence Marketing News – Getting Real

October 19, 2012

In today’s bi-weekly roundup, you’ll see that the centerpiece of these last two weeks was getting back to the basic element of brand influence – being authentic and real.

Let’s dive in and take a closer look.

35 Experts Weigh-in: How We Create Influence on Facebook

Mark Schaefer, on his blog {grow}, asked his fellow marketing masters what their secret weapons are in social influence. These are highlights of their best tips:

Be Generous – As Jennifer Kane of Kane Consulting explains, “Proactively and strategically build your network, and then lavish those people with attention and empathy so that each one feels like the star of their online life — which seems to naturally compel people to want to make you the star of yours, in return.”
Be Real – Steve Farnsworth of The @Steveology Blog suggests having “a distinct, candid, and thoughtful opinion/point of view, and be transparent on your reasoning for it. However, if you’re presented with new information that changes that opinion, openly admit your new position and why you changed it.”
Be Surprising – Marisa Peacock, Chief Strategist at The Strategic Peacock offers this advice,“In order to create power and influence on Facebook, it’s essential to provide fans with an experience that they can’t get from any other company touchpoint — not from your website, or Twitter, or Pinterest. A successful FB page creates a value-added bonus that gives fans a reason to stay connected and engaged. ”

Read the full article from Mark Schaefer – 35 experts weigh-in: How we create influence on Facebook

The Amway Effect on Social Media Influencers

According to marketing columnist Jure Klepic, the multi-level approach to building influencers is out of hand. So much so, that high numbers in followers and fans, likes, and comments are becoming more about competition between rival brands than actually measuring which brand is getting through to the audience – making a real connection.

Illustrating how fake the space is becoming as far as influencer-façade, he provides the instance of the so-called “social media certification program”. Most industries have a trade organization where representatives from multiple companies get together and jointly develop industry standards that lead to a certification process. In social media, he says, all you have to do is put together a program and say you are bestowing a certification for the low price of only $1198. No governing board, no statement of qualifications for those developing the program, and no actual perceived industry benefit for actually achieving this certification – just an opportunity to give your money to someone else so you can spend your time “learning” instead of doing.

He concludes that Amway’s multi-level marketing has no place in social media. He also says, “we are not holding a contest to see who can gather the most followers; we are trying to see who can have the most impact and make the biggest difference. Instead of going through all this effort to make others think you are a social media influencer, why not just become one through hard work and perseverance?”

Read the full article from Jure Klepic – The Amway Effect on Social Media Influencers

Coping with the Klout Reality

Marketer Geoff Livingston covers his feelings on the controversial influencer-measuring tool Klout, declaring that marketers should tolerate its place in social media and accept its long-term stay in the space, admitting that before recently, “there wasn’t much to say. I agreed in principal with many of my colleagues and their continuing coverage about the broken nature of influence metrics…. But I had a second reason: As a professional communicator, it’s become increasingly clear that we won’t escape Klout, Kred, and PeerIndex.”

One of the most interesting tidbits from the article came from a comment left by Tonia Ries, founder of agency Modern Media, who sees the value in such influencer-detection tools, but reminds business leaders who are depending on them comprehensively that they may be basing important decisions on irrelevant data:

“What you measure is what you get. We can argue all day long about the definition of “influence” but the fact is that these tools measure very specific behaviors. You want someone who spends a lot of time on Twitter or Facebook and knows how to build a following? Go right ahead. But remember that’s *all* these personal influence tools can see — and if you’re using them as a single data point to make critical business decisions you’re playing with fire.”

Read the full article from Geoff Livingston – Coping with the Klout Reality

The Digital Skeptic: Klout, Even With Microsoft, Scores Zero in Social Media

Jonathan Blum, a contributor to The Street, attempts to unravel the secrets behind Klout’s scoring algorithm after suffering a massive blow to his score once he added Facebook to his account. In effort to better understand the drop, he contacted Klout directly and talked to an industry expert about it, but was unable to uncover the odd behavior with his account.

But it’s not just Jonathan’s account that raises some eyebrows. Jonathan also talks about other well-known, influential people with scores that fall all over the map. It’s an interesting look at the ongoing conversation about Klout and the numbers behind it.

Read the full article from Jonathan Blum – The Digital Skeptic: Klout, Even With Microsoft, Scores Zero in Social Media

What did you think about these articles? Do you have any favorites from the week that we should check out? Let us know in the comments!

Image credit: Batcic

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