[image from: Shutterstock]
I was fortunate enough to be part of a webinar with Beth Kanter today. Beth gave a fantastic presentation and I really enjoyed our conversation (I’ll post the link once it’s available).
But what I enjoyed the most was when, in response to a question about figuring out how much Whuffie one has, Beth showed a great diagram:
that will be in her book coming out next year, The Networked NonProfit.
What I love most about the way Beth thinks of measuring is that the impact, not the influence is the final goal. The big prize. All too many times, people stop at the influence part: how popular is that person? how many followers do we have? who is talking about me and my company? how much love do people feel for me?
This is one of the biggest reasons I don’t like to measure Whuffie. I get the question time and time again when I talk about the book. The question I *should* be getting is ‘what can I do with my Whuffie?’. We should be less concerned about how many followers one has and more about what that person does with that many followers. Not only is Whuffie left better in the non-fungible, ephemeral realm, but it is inconsequential. The measure needs to be in the impact. If we concentrate on our influence, we forget the end goal. We get caught up in our ego.
And ego isn’t where we want to get caught up. Fame for fame’s sake. Followers for followers sake. This all turns into, “Look at me! I’m influential! It makes me special!” It’s easy to get caught up in, but don’t. Which reminds me, an influencer who tends to not dwell on his famousness, Chris Brogan, talked about this the other day. Enjoy:
Remember the impact. What will be your legacy? That you were just famous for being famous (i.e. Paris Hilton and/or Vaporware)? Or that you made a difference, built something revolutionary, or led a real change in the world?
Real food for thought–it is far too easy to get caught up in the popularity game of followers and lists, and lose sight of the larger strategy or goal. If we can put the numbers aside, or view them as simply a point of interest, it becomes easier to focus on the content we create and the connections we make. That, to me, is where the impact starts to happen. Will view Chris Brogan’s video shortly–he seems to me to embody a wonderful mix of depth, thoughtfulness, rebellion, and humor!
Great Post Tara and excellent timing.
Today I was at a Lunch Party with my dad (he is 82 years old, I was his last child when he was 60) and lot’s of people came to say hi and hug him because in many cases he was the boss of many or the one that gave them the opportunity of a job and to do something with themselves. My dad is a Mining Engineer and I felt really proud of how much good he had done and he never spoke about to me.
One of the men that approached told me: ‘You should be proud your dad is a pioneer in the mining and in being ethical and responsible’ and then I thought just what you say ….when I get old (hopefully to be 82) what will be the important thing … How many people know me or the impact I had on their lifes and I really think it’s the impact we have what’s important. Because it serves as example to the younger generations (to our kids) and it just makes you feel much better when you look back to your life.
Fantastic post! Thanks. It was fantastic to have an opportunity to hear you present on Whuffie. I have a blog post coming .. juggling time with kids with book deadline ..
In the meantime, more about the importance of measuring impact versus influence -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/4072422420/
Reading through your post, it occurs to me that “influence” is commonly being used to describe imitation, flattery, or just fame. Influence, in the pre-Web world, was about shaping and changing people’s behavior. Influence is amoral in this environment: you can be pressured, persuaded, charmed, or convinced to do something through the use of influence. “Influence” seems to be more about capturing a share of attention rather than having any significant effect (or impact, I guess) on behavior. And this share of attention is in micro-slices which are often so fleeting as to be mere blips… worthless, really.
I think Beth’s right on the money about impact, similar to what I think of as a more classical form of influence. Take Mother Theresa: limited influence originally, which grew over time as she had a powerful impact on many people’s lives.
Couldn’t agree with you more Tara. Have some similar thoughts here: http://bit.ly/4yirOq
Hi Tara,
I’m going to disagree with you about this. I think the disagreement runs around how you define influence. I distinguish between popularity (simple numbers game) and influence (what people do with what you’ve done). Popularity is not the same as influence and popularity is very bad proxy for influence. Pop stars are popular but not influential.
You can measure influence by looking at what other people do. You can put a number on someone’s Whuffie, but no single number will suffice. Influence is different for when you are a creator, discover or amplifier. A person’s influence is also dependent on the domain.
You, Tara, are influential in Social Media but have no influence in domain of Osteoarchaeology where as Dr Alice Roberts does.
Influence and Whuffie aren’t like a currency. Instead they are a badge, a proxy for experience and knowledge, that you can use to justify the price you charge for you services or is a shortcut to explaining why what you say or do has value.
We’ve been measuring influence and whuffie for a very long time. It is what a lot of history is. The saga’s about kings and heroes where ways for those people to demonstrate their influence. The more and longer those sagas where the greater the person, the more influential.
To add to Simon’s point
Influence is defined as:
the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others: He used family influence to get the contract.
the action or process of producing effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of another or others
This definition shows that indeed not all popular stars have influence, but many do affect other peoples actions. Influence then is how much you inspire people to act which may go in a good or bad way. Impact on that matter is very important to measure because the impact you make in some people will also be important.
Basically I think the impact and influence (as defined by Simon) go inside the impact definition Tara is using. Both are important to measure how much we affect other person, business, area or whatever it may be.
Your post pauses me to reflect on a conversation yesterday with a person who shared that she experiences me as a big influence (role model) in her life.
We know each other from various professional circles where we both attend and volunteer our time to assist the unemployed and underemployed.
I was touched to hear how what I do is inspiring her to launch her own business.
Time will tell if her business will have an impact that is typically measured in market share, revenue or gross profit. But what seemed certain is that I have seen her grow from someone who is shy and reserved to one with a sense of purpose (an impact).
It seems that both influence and impact have their place.
Great post Chris, as always…something I’m constantly trying to remind myself of.
It’s so hard to get caught up in all the nice things being said, but that’s when we fall.
Keep up the great work and look forward to talking with you soon!
Tara,
So incredibly on the point! I can only say it best by pointing to The 4,000 Twitter Followers Who Don’t Care. And still, companies ask “can you get me 1,000 followers?” I can, but that’s all whuffle, and will do nothing for your company in the end. As a former community organizer, I remember the wise words of the person I looked up to as a mentor organizer. He told me: “leaders are people that others follow. No one is a self-appointed leader.” In social media, that is exactly right. Leaders inspire others to act, and those followers do act. They will engage, visit sites, and take other action because of that inspiration and relationship. Beth has it right: leadership in social networks means that a person can move people to act, and it should ideally be “in the real world” or at least, in a meaningful way that affects the real world.
What a great post – keep ‘em coming!
@askdebra
Great points, Tara, and Beth Kanter is amazing.
Not so sure about Chris Brogan not believing in his own fame. Starting his own media feed on Twitter; calling his blog “powerful” as in “I can outrank Timberland on Google”. He’s turning into as bad as Guy Kawasaki in the hype and self-belief book.
Sorry for a downer, otherwise agree with everything you say!
K.
Hi Tara,
Beth Kanter wrote up your webinar on Social Media Today (http://bit.ly/bethtarainfluence). I wrote a comment there that I would like to re-post here because the questions are relevant.
What’s your take on this?
– repost follows –
Terrific post, Beth. As always, you’ve given a lot for me to think about.
We need to give everyone who doesn’t work in the industry every day a little bit of credit, though. For the most part, people are really starting to get that “higher number of followers does not equal greater influence.” We’ve done our job well in educating decisionmakers on that front.
But we also need to acknowledge that focusing on results is not the ONLY way to demonstrate social media ROI. We cannot just say, “Trust us, we’ll know how we did at the end when we look at the results.” That’s the equivalent of going into an auto repair shop with your car, asking for an estimate, and getting told by the mechanic, “Don’t worry, we’ll put a price on at the end when we’re done. Trust us.” *grin*
So don’t get me wrong. I get that you’re saying “don’t focus on the numbers.” But I think it’s a very legitimate question for the person sitting at the other side of the table to ask, “Well, how should I determine the influence of this blogger I’m trying to connect with?” If you shouldn’t be pointing to the numbers (# of followers, Whuffie level, # of friends, etc.), then what should you point to?
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michael.rubin@empowermm.com // twitter.com/merubin // 847.370.3421