Influencers in social media online world enabled by web 2.0 technologies are often said to be different from those of traditional media of TV, magazine, newspaper, and radio. Despite the difference in influencers, the main objective of communicating by online of offline media is the same; to influence opinion leaders and the general public to gain positive effect such as enhancement of reputation.
In this article, the author would like to discuss possible indicators to be used in measuring online influence, both the quantity (size and scope) and quality (positive or negative).
1. How influence can be measured in traditional media?
This is about defining metrics and indicators of measuring effectiveness of traditional media. It is usually rating for TV, the number of newspapers and magazines published, the number of people tuned in for radio, and the number of visitors for tradeshows and seminars.
Many PR professionals examine coverage of mass media as well. In the case of the company the author used to work for, what was examined were the space covered by the article of magazines and newspapers and duration of footage of the report of the company in the TV news. The tones of the articles and reports (i.e. whether positive or negative) were also examined, evaluated by 5 ratings.
By no means, positive tone is what PR professionals aim for. Negative tone coverage indicates that the influence itself is large.
Influence of an individual can also be measured in a similar way.
2. How online influence can be measured?
The author would like to discuss one by one of some major online media/channels.
1) Websites and YouTube
In the case of a (corporate) website, web metrics (indicators) to measure popularity of the website provide a guidance of the online influence. Such web metrics include PV (page view = number of pages viewed), number of unique users/visitors (an IP address plus a further identifier) and the average or total duration of web visitor(s) stay in the website.
If the website is made social, the number of people who has set RSS is also valuable indicators, so is the number of e-mail (e-newsletter) subscribers. The number of tweets, digs, shares and likes on Facebook etc. are also important indicators to examine the online influence of a website.
From such indicators, it is quite clear that the more social the website, the greater possibility of becoming more influential by viral marketing, creating “buzz”. This is why in today’s web 2.0 era it is ideal to make website or webpage social.
The author would also note how the website is mentioned in traditional media such as magazines, in online articles of traditional media, and blogs, in the similar way as measuring influence in traditional media already mentioned.
The same concept and methodology can be adopted for YouTube just that PV would be the number of time played/viewed.
2) Blogs
The concept and methodology of defining, measuring and evaluating indicators for websites can be adopted for blogs as well.
One additional point to take note is comment; i.e. number and quality of comments.
It goes without saying that larger the number of comments the greater the influence and therefore the better, especially when only 1 out of 10 people are said to leave comments.
The quality of comment(s) has multiple aspects.
One is whether the comments are positive or negative. Of course positive comments are better, but negative comments indicate much influence because unless the person has strong emotion he/she would not make negative comments. Also negative comments tend to provoke further comments and discussions, meaning increase in influence. In addition, if the blogger act appropriately to negative comments, in many cases the person of negative comment becomes a fan and future evangelist.
Another point to examine is whether the comment adds value to the blog community. Such comments are those that provide additional information, different views and so forth. Similarly to negative comments, value-adding comments also provoke further comments leading to constructive discussions and this means greater influence.
3) E-mails
The concept and methodology for defining, measuring and evaluating indicators of blogs can be adopted for e-mails, too.
Common metrics and indicators for e-mails include percentage of subscribers who actually opened/read the e-mail as well as the number of subscribers. Number of clicks to access the links in the e-mail is also an important metric/indicator. The author would also add the number and the quality of comments, similarly to blogs, also determine how influential the e-mail is.
The number of e-mails forwarded would also be a good metric because it indicates the effectiveness of “going viral” similarly to (re)tweets, digging, and sharing/liking of Facebook mentioned later in the article. However, with today’s technology it is almost impossible to be measured.
4) Twitter
Twitter is micro blogging and thus concept of defining, measuring and evaluating indicators of blogs can be adopted for Twitter. However, concrete methodology needs to be developed because of its unique functions.
The most popular metric/indicator is by no means the number of followers but as discussed in many English blog articles it is not just about the quantity (number) of followers. The quality (who follows) of followers is also important. The more influential people follow you the better.
Another good metric/indicator is lists. This is likely to be a better indicator to see the degree of engagement than followers because people would usually scrutinize more carefully before listing someone than simply following someone.
This means people who follow your list are highly engaged and thus the number of people following your list is a trustworthy indicator of the engagement. The more people follow your list, the greater possibility of being influential. Actually a social media expert (giving seminars in multiple countries) and a great online friend of the author explicitly said that what he really cares is who follows his lists than who follows him.
Other metrics/indicators to see the influence are the number of retweets and mentions. Number of retweets includes retweet(s) of the retweet i.e. viral of retweets. Retweets tends to go viral when an influential follower retweets your tweet because then the followers of the influential follower retweet the retweet of your original tweet, thus the influence is amplified. This is quite prominent from the author’s everyday tweeting, and there was an excellent example of this today. This is the power of viral marketing on Twitter/social media.
The concept of evaluating the tone of the retweet/mentions, i.e. positive or negative tone is the same as those of websites and comments of blogs.
5) Facebook
Together with Twitter, Facebook is one of the major social media and the concept of defining, measuring and evaluating indicators of Twitter can be adopted for Facebook.
The most popular metric/indicator is of course the number of friends. However, similarly to Twitter, it is not just the quantity (number) of friends but quality (who are the) of friends also counts. The more influential people you friend with the better.
Other metrics/indicators to examine are the number of shares and likes, similarly to retweets and mentions of Twitter. It is the posts tend to go viral by shares and likes if it is once shared and liked by an influential person, similarly to Twitter.
Of course, similarly to blogs, number of comments, especially the positive ones, is another indicator. As in blogs, negative and value-adding comments needs attention and analysis to measure influence.
Another good indicator is fan pages/groups. This is in a sense an equivalent of “lists” of Twitter. People who join the fan pages/groups are more likely to be thoughtful of joining the group than simply accepting friend request. For this reason this is a good indicator to see the degree of engagement than normal friends.
The concept of evaluating the tone of the comments to the posts, i.e. positive or negative tone is the same as those of websites and comments of blogs.
6) LinkedIn
Same as Facebook, LinkedIn is categorized as SNS (Social Networking Site) therefore basic concept and methodology of defining, measuring and evaluating indicators with Facebook can be adopted for LinkedIn.
The differences in wording from Facebook although the meanings are the same are:-
a) friends in Facebook are called connections in LinkedIn
b) fan page / page in Facebook are called LinkedIn groups
The same functions with Facebook that helps viral marketing are:-
a) shares
b) likes
The concept of evaluating the tone of the comments to the posts on group discussion, Q&A and updates, i.e. positive or negative tone is the same as those of website, blogs and Facebook.
3. The author’s final thoughts
As in all other measurement, analysis and evaluation, online influence needs to be measured, analyzed and evaluated from both quantitative and qualitative approaches.
In taking the quantitative approach, metrics/indicators are easier to be defined and monitored online than offline traditional media.
However, just like other data (including accounting and financial statements), there can be numerous possible indicators and selecting the optimum ones meeting the objective of measurement, analysis and evaluation is crucial. This requires defining online influence and making consensus with related parties.
What is more, numbers can be “manipulated”. Even in accounting, the output numbers differ according to the accounting principle(s) adopted.
Taking the qualitative approach is even more challenging; there cannot be one-fits-for-all methodology. This also requires defining online influence and making consensus with related parties to coming up with the optimum methodology.
What can be said is that “engagement” as well as "viral/buzz" is the key of online influence. Engagement is one of the many topics that has been discussed in many blog articles about social media. The author also would like to discuss this topic in one of her upcoming articles.
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Measuring online influence requires quantitative and qualitative approach, both of which requires defining, measuring and evaluating optimum indicators based on the objective of measuring online influence, of reaching consensus with related parties. Basic concept is the same for all major online media just that concrete methodologies differ according to the different functions of each media. What can be said that engagement as well as viral/buzz is the key of online influence.
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