How Do You Influence?

In class we talk about influencers all the time. Regardless of if they are brand advocates, spokespeople or employees, they are important to the success or failure to an organization. They are the people new and returning customers listen to in order to learn new information or obtain advice.

One way some people categorize those influencers is through Klout. Klout assigns a score to social media users based on activity via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. More recently, Klout users can link their Instagram to the service as well. I first heard about Klout at a PRSSA meeting earlier this year. I thought the service was so interesting, so I decided to create an account. I was excited when I saw my highest score was around 60 (out of 100). My most recent Klout score and activity history is behind.

Although I was happy with my score, Ed Keller and Brad Fay (authors of The Face-to-Face Book) disagree. This exert was taken from page 54 of the book:

The reality of Klout- and of any system based solely on online 

social network statistics- is it doesn't tell you much about a given person

 beyond the size of his network and his ability to post messages

 that get further shared. It reveals nothing about how credible 

his messages are, nor how they drive any type of online

 buying, much less offline behavior of any kind.

OK, I do agree with this statement..in a way. Yes, a Klout score does not show the credibility of the source or how influential they are in real life. However, if Ellen Degeneres tweets about donating to a charity, don't you think that will raise more money than if I tweet out to my 325 followers? Yes. She does influence more people via social media than I can even imagine.

What are your thoughts about Klout? Do you like seeing how "influential" you are on social media or do you think it is a waste of time? 

The Face-to-Face Book is different than the other public relations/social media books I've read. Why? Because it's not all about how great the world of social media is to organizations. The book makes me question things I've believed in the past...like the Presidential Election of 2008. For as long as I can remember, social media has been a big reason Barack Obama was elected into the White House that November day. I guess I shouldn't be surprised when Keller and Fay throw the idea out that social media even played a role in the election. However, I disagree. Obama did have a larger number of 18-29 year olds who voted for him. These people were the early adapters of social media. These people were the first ones to create Facebook pages. 

"At the end of the day, voter contact happened because trained field organizers got their volunteers into a system that was getting doors knocked and phone calls made..." p. 57. I don't know about you, but I don't want people walking up to my door and asking who I'm voting for or trying to persuade me one way or another. I would get annoyed and most likely tell them to leave. However, I would rather interact with these people online when I choose to go on Twitter, Facebook, etc. On my time I would interact with these influencers, not when I'm in the middle of doing the dishes or finishing homework. 

Now, I'm sure other people are not going to agree with my stance on the subject. Maybe my opinion is a little skewed because of the number of social media classes I'm taking or the research I've conducted. I completely agree with Keller and Fay say face-to-face communication is vital! But, I don't think they give enough credit to social media and it's power. 

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with Keller and Fay, or do you believe social media creates powerful influencers?

Until next time, stay classy my fellow bloggers.

Candace