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The Pillars of Influence and How to Activate Cause and Effect

Digital Influence is one of the hottest trends in social media and it is also one of the least understood. Klout, PeerIndex, Kred among many others are investing millions of dollars to understand how our social media activity translates into influence. The market for influence is only heating up with more entrants expected to debut and acquisitions or mergers likely on the horizon. Within the last 90 days alone, Klout took in a Series C of $30 million from Kleiner Perkins at a whopping valuation of $200 million. PeerIndex also recently announced an investment of $3 million.

Whether we agree with them in principle or not, the topic of digital influence is only becoming more influential. Almost anyone with a social media profile is already indexed in at least one of the many vendors on the scene today. Consumers are trying to figure out what it means. Brands are realizing the promise of connecting to connected consumers. Advertising and PR agencies are spending budget against it. So what is influence and what does it really mean?

Right now, there are more questions and theories than answers. Like some relationships in Facebook, it’s complicated. But, I can tell you what it is not. Influence is not popularity and popularity is not influence. It’s so much more than that.

Since 2009, I’ve studied the influence landscape. After a few years and a few dozen articles on the subject, I concentrated my focus on developing a comprehensive report to take a deep dive into all things influence. One year later, I’m proud to publish my first report as part of the Altimeter Group, “The Rise of Digital Influence.”

Early on in the development of the report, I learned that the definition of influence was elusive or in some cases, down right incorrect. At the same time, vendors claim to track influence when in fact, they track elements of online social capital based on proprietary algorithms of how people engage and connect in various social networks. While this isn’t influence per se, brands and those familiar with “influence” services now associate the idea of direct influence with scores, which is part of the problem. So, I set out to explore the landscape to help make sense of it. It’s not a scorecard of vendors. It’s not a rally against vendor positioning. It’s a call for clarity.

I think few would disagree that influence as a score is imprecise. But it is in this assertion that the responsibility of translating numbers into insights falls on those who expect to glean value from these services. Everything starts with the realization that none of the vendors out there actually measure influence. Instead, they measure a slice social capital, which is defined here as the online networks of relationships among people in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively.

After spending a significant amount of time with brand managers, advertising and communications professionals, and also connected consumers, it was clear that the “score” became the emphasis. Brands sought out people with higher scores. Users pursued ways to increase their scores. Services built programs that rewarded those with higher scores. But very little went into gaining better understanding of what the number actually meant for brands and consumers alike.

Though very public experimentation however, brands are learning in real-time that scores do not matter as much as the context of relationships. Consumers are learning that gaming scores or being part of branded marketing activity without purpose may actually affect their status within their online communities.

I believe that many look at the idea of influence backwards, unknowingly relying on scores rather than understanding how influence is actually created and used.

Without context or defining purpose or value upfront, experimentation is already leading businesses down the wrong path of wasted time, resources, and squandered opportunities to build important relationships. And for users, they’re left without a strong grasp of how these scores affect them online and offline.

An important question for businesses to consider is what does a score actually represent? What does a “74” mean to your business goals and objectives? And, how do you apply it toward effective strategies and supporting metrics? It turns out that a “74” means very little when viewed simply as a score. But that’s just common sense. However, each service provides a deeper view of individuals, why they’re scored in a particular way and most importantly the elements that contribute to contextualized social capital (focus, authority, the nature of relevant relationships, etc.) and how their online activity potentially reaches and affects others. Services such as Traackr and mBlast excel here.

Here, value is in the eye of the beholder. The value is a result of research and how data is interpreted and applied against business objectives. So, in that sense, tools that measure online activity can provide value if you know what you’re trying to accomplish first and how you will measure success and then apply that filter to your examination.

Defining Influence – Measuring Outcomes

Once businesses take the time to learn about digital influence, its benefits, and how to connect with influential consumers, brands can harness social networks to proactively drive positive sentiment, engagement, and results. It’s important to take this time to gain a better grasp of digital influence to develop a meaningful strategy and defining desired outcomes. See, digital influence is defined as the ability to cause effect, change behavior, and drive measurable outcomes online. So a score of “74” doesn’t correlate directly to outcomes. But, through design, brands can identify the right people, develop meaningful engagement strategies, design online experiences that can lead to desirable results.

When defining a strategy, a good place to start is by going back to basics. Some of the most often asked questions that deserve your consideration upfront are:

· What is influence, and what makes someone influential?
· Who is influential in social networks and why?
· How can I recognize influence or the capacity to influence?
· What effect does digital word of mouth have on my business?
· How can I measure successful engagement with influential consumers?

To help you find the answers and more importantly, to get the greatest value out of influence vendors, I include a detailed Influence Action Plan to develop thoughtful, results-oriented strategies and programs. The Action Plan is designed to walk you through the steps necessary to assess where you are, where you need to be, who can help you get there, why, and what’s in it for them and those who follow them.

Your next steps are then to turn your Influence Action Plan into a working strategy. Here’s what to do next:

1. Define the parameters of the program and what success looks like
2. Assesss vendors based on your goals and identify influencers that will help you achieve desired results
3. Design a program that provides value to not only influencers, but also those connected to them
4. Measure performance and optimize strategies and experiences from program to program
5. Repeat

By studying the people who matter to your business, and the people who matter to your customers, your business strategies will benefit from a new level of customer awareness and sensitivity that speaks volumes in new media. Suddenly the score isn’t as important as the elements that earns someone stature within their community. Understanding this will contribute to a more informed, effective and valued engagement program. And at the end of the day, while “influence” vendors help identify ideal connected consumers, it is up to those who run influence marketing programs to define the “R” or return in ROI to track the true measure of influence, outcomes.

Download the report…

Via Brian Solis: http://www.briansolis.com

Report: The Rise of Digital Influence

About three weeks ago, I celebrated my first anniversary as Principal Analyst of Altimeter Group. And, it is with great pride that I mark the occasion with the release of my first official Altimeter report, “The Rise of Digital Influence.” Not a traditional market report, it was written as both a primer and a how-to guide for businesses to spark desirable effects and outcomes through social media influence.

We live in a time when social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, et al., not only connect us, they become part of our digital lifestyle. But it’s not just about how these networks help us connect and communicate with others. Whether we know it or not, our social activity now contributes to our stature within each network. New services such as Klout, PeerIndex among many others not only measure who you know, what you say, and what you do, they attempt to score or rank your ability to influence those to whom you’re connected. As a result, social network users are now starting to rethink how they connect and communicate to improve their stature within each network. And at the same time, brands are taking notice as these services also help organizations identify individuals who are both connected and relevant to help expand reach into new media and markets.

The potential for social influence is enormous on both sides of the equation. Services that rank and identify “influence” open the door to new opportunities for businesses to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with digital tastemakers and authorities. Brands extend their reach into new networks and consumers earn recognition and reward for their online status. These new paradigms also present a number of unforeseen challenges as businesses and digital consumers alike come to grips with what influence is and isn’t.

The Rise of Digital Influence takes a deep dive into digital influence. It explores the emerging landscape for digital influence to provide businesses with a lens into how it’s earned and spent in social networks. Additionally, the report lays out an Influence Framework and an Influence Action Plan to identify connected consumers and to define and measure digital influence initiatives using an included step-by-step process. Through examples and a review of the digital influence tools available, businesses will posses a stronger grasp of how to develop effective engagement  strategies and supporting processes.

Stephanie Agresta, EVP, Managing Director of Social Media, Weber Shandwick leads one of the newly created roles emerging to help businesses better understand the world of digital influence, “Influence is much more than a score. This is about reaching people not just because they’re connected, but because they serve a role within their online community. It’s up to brand managers, marketers and communications professionals to use influence tools to learn more about the social landscapes and the people who affect their markets. As the findings here point out, brands cannot think episodically about influence or influencers. This is not a campaign based discipline. While tools are helpful, the practice of IRM (Influencer Relationship Management) is about on-going engagement and community building. Today, that can happen at scale.”

The Rise of Digital Influence includes qualitative reviews of 14 influence vendors and also insights from domain experts including…

- David Armano, Executive Vice President, Global Innovation & Integration, Edelman Digital,
- Dr. Bernardo A. Huberman, Director, Social Computing Lab, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
- Molly O’Donnell, Director of Influencer Marketing for Windows Phone, Microsoft
- danah boyd, Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research; Research Assistant Professor, NYU

Not only does it help you explore the emerging landscape for digital influence, it finally explains how it’s earned and spent in social networks. More importantly, the report introduces an Influence Framework and an Influence Action Plan to identify connected consumers and to define and measure strategic digital influence initiatives using an included step-by-step process.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Via Brian Solis: http://www.briansolis.com

What’s Love Got to Do with It? The 3P’s of Identity

Guest post by Allison Cerra, author of Identity Shift

With the 2012 Presidential election looming, there’s no shortage of polls to help narrow the field of candidates. I find a recent one from Fox News to be particularly fascinating. Among other questions, Republican primary voters were asked which Republican presidential candidate is most likeable and which they would most trust with a nuclear weapon. While Newt Gingrich scored at the top of the heap in earning the trust vote, he scored only marginally well on the likeability scale. The topic was discussed on the network’s “Fox & Friends” morning show where analysts debated: Which is better – trust or likeability?

In the end, both analysts agreed that likeability is the more powerful weapon in a Presidential race. Look no further than to some of the most charismatic presidents in recent history for evidence of the same. Indeed, likeability has been shown to be a potent influencer in just about any life encounter – from friendships to job recruitment to sales. But, as the Fox poll shows, an issue as paramount to national security as nuclear war raises the importance of trustworthiness in the equation. And, while you and I may not spend our days contemplating the chances of a nuclear attack, raising our consciousness toward such a self-preservation issue may certainly tip the scales in how we view the question at hand.

Cast Your Identity

While we only get the chance to vote for President every four years, we cast thousands of votes each day in other ways. We vote with our time for leisure activities. We vote with our attention in the barrage of advertisements to which we are exposed. We certainly vote with our wallets on purchase decisions amidst a sea of competing options. Merchants are aware of these votes being cast each day. They vie to intercept us at the precise moment of truth with a targeted offer we simply can’t resist. And, in the hyper-connected world in which we increasingly dwell, our digital footprint reveals a treasure trove of information to advertisers eager to learn our likes, dislikes and behaviors – if only we felt comfortable enough exposing it.

While it certainly pales in comparison to the threat of nuclear attack, exposing our digital DNA gets at preservation at a different level – the preservation of the identity we seek to create and protect as our lives are increasingly connected in new ways. This leads us back to the same question: Does trust or likeability matter more when contemplating how and when to reveal one’s digital blueprint to others?

Alcatel-Lucent, a global provider of broadband networks, set out to answer this very question. We visited with respondents in 30 homes across the country, observing them for hours in their natural habitats going about their ordinary day. We followed up with a quantitative study to more than 5,000 consumers across the US from teens to mid-lifers to isolate psychometrics, behaviors and values. Our goal was ambitious: How do the devices and networks connecting us each day affect our view of ourselves and those serving us?

Who Are You?

To answer the question, we first had to understand how respondents view themselves in the networked world that keeps them connected. Through the research, we derived the 3P model of identity.

First, there’s presentation, which speaks to the image I attempt to reflect depending on my context. Before the days of devices connecting us in a 24

Enterprise Social Networking is More Than Facebook Behind a Firewall

We see everyday what’s possible with social networks for improving customer engagement and experiences? Can the same be done with internal social networks for improving employee engagement and experiences?

In the many years of helping businesses align business objectives with social and new media strategies, there is one thing that always introduces difficulty into the equation, employee engagement. At some point in the development of any strategy, employee and stakeholder input is critical to ensure relevance and ultimately success. While social media may more often than not live in the marketing department, it affects the entire organization and as such, requires a centralized approach to leadership and management combined with a distributed platform for communication and learning.

Enterprise social networks (ESNs) are on the rise as they can deliver an immediate solution for aligning stakeholders around activity streams with the familiarity of Twitter or Facebook. These internal social networks are not only validating and useful to power users, but also friendly and easy to participate in for those who are new to the platform. While the promise of ESNs is significant to the future of how employees interact, learn, and ultimately work, challenges exist around adoption and overall measurement. And, like social media in general, businesses often underestimate or altogether miss the true potential of social networks and the role they play in bringing people together to do something incredible…over and over.

Charlene Li, my colleague at Altimeter Group, published a new report, “Making The Business Case For Enterprise Social Networking” to do just that, help you make the business case for enterprise social networking. As she observes from the onset, “ESNs are not simply Facebook behind a firewall. Every enterprise has distinct needs and nuances that require a reframing of a social network.”

So often, businesses deploy new technology without designing goals, processes, and reward systems to promote new engagement. Additionally, decision makers miss the need to empower key stakeholders to drive adoption and address internal skeptics and detractors. Thus, the potential for ESNs is restricted right out of the gate and in the absence of leadership and executive sponsorship, internal networking strategies miss critical opportunities to engage and inspire people, internally and externally, to more effectively connect and collaborate.

Everything begins with investing in a culture of employee and customer-centricity where ESNs and social networks in general become enablers for a new vision, empowerment, supported by defined outcomes and rewards. Yes, it’s part technology. But, tools only take you so far. It’s the philosophy and eventually vision and leadership behind the implementation that serves as the foundation for internal engagement.

Four Key Ways ESNs Deliver Value to a Social Business

In Charlene’s report, she found that many companies place greater emphasis on technology and not the people or the relationship factor that ESNs are designed to nurture.

Most companies approach enterprise social networks as a technology deployment and fail to understand that the new relationships created by enterprise social networks are the source for value creation. Yesteryear, internal technology departments could force software on business units, but in today’s consumerized world, business units can adopt enterprise software, often without IT ever knowing. As a result, a new approach is required that focuses on four key ways that relationships create value through enterprise social networks:

1) Encourage sharing.
2) Capture knowledge.
3) Enable action.
4) Empower employees.

These four points serve as beacons for guiding the development of a more meaningful engagement strategy within and across work groups to set the stage for a social business. If we bring a “Facebook-like” (get it?) mentality into our ESN strategy, we may fall short of enabling a truly social enterprise. In the report, she introduces the six elements that outline the differences between a public and enterprise social network to clarify the nuances between what’s truly possible.

What we have here is a failure to communicate

In general, expectations are high for ESNs because of the wonderful opportunities introduced through public-facing social networks. Executives are learning about the benefits associated with customer engagement through Facebook, Twitter, et al. But without establishing initial goals and then driving toward those outcomes, expectations for ESNs often go unmet.

Charlene’s research team interviewed 185 end users and surveyed 81 decision makers to learn about expectations for ESNs. They found that not only is there strong belief i the ability for ESNs to provide value to the organization, there is an emphasis on improving collaboration and the flow of information and knowledge within the organization.

However, Charlene uncovered “an undercurrent of concern” around potential value creation and the sustainable adoption of ESNs. Notably, most organizations saw one or more of the following four scenarios:

1. An initial enthusiasm and usage followed by slow decline.
2. Only one department strongly adopts the ESN.
3. Culture confusion and lack of executive engagement stymied growth from the start.
4. Lack of social business maturity.

Looking at the chart above, the majority of organizations are still in the experimental phases of ESN deployments. They’re piloting without operating under a formalized strategy. Examining the other numbers however, the distribution between formalized, mature, and advanced is notable.  But as Charlene notes, there are three critical painpoints that are either limiting success or hindering adoption. And, one could then revisit these numbers to discover that organizations may not be as far along as they believe.

Pain Point #1: Lack Of Metrics Means Business Impact Goes Unmeasured

Pain Point #2: Rapidly Developing Technology Platforms Create A Myriad Of Confusing Options

Pain Point #3: Integration Into Existing Platforms, Workflow, And Access Remain A Barrier

Developing an Action Plan

Making The Business Case For Enterprise Social Networking is rich, full of insights, and most importantly, it delivers a series of steps to follow to design ESN strategies to drive business value.

Regardless of where you are on the maturity curve, there should be four essential elements of your ESN action plan:
1) Objectives;
2) Metrics;
3) Relationships; and
4) Technology.

To get started, use the following checklist to help organize and prioritize your effort

Taking a Step Back: You are the Change Agent

There is no “I” in team, but there certainly is a “me.” And, to that point, there is also a “me” in social media. I guess, there’s an “I” too, but my point is that at the center of every team you belong to, is well, you. You are already learning about the importance of social media in your personal life. Many of you who are reading this now have also invested in demonstrating the importance of social media to your organization. But there’s a stark difference between traditional networking applications that most likely exist at your company today and the social networks you depend on for everyday communication, discovery, and engagement.

When you joined the organization you’re at today, you most likely received a desk, a PC, a phone, an email account, etc. You probably didn’t receive a Twitter handle or a Facebook page. You brought those into company. But that’s not all that came along with you. You introduced a new perspective on how transparent communication and connections facilitate engagement and collaboration. And this is why existing infrastructures that facilitate employee interaction and knowledge sharing are often not up to par to meet the needs for those pushing for transformation in the social economy.

Social media is about you. You have a voice. Everything you see in social networks is unique to you because you are at the center of the entire experience. This is why I lovingly refer to social media as the Egosystem. By design, everything revolves around you. Your friends, co-workers, the businesses and organizations you support, are linked to by you. You have become the ringmaster of your personal connectivity and in many ways, serve as the IT department not only for yourself, but also the people who rely upon you to ease their way into the egosystem. You know better than anyone what it takes to engage you and also inspire you to take action. You need to get something out of it. You need to see what happens as a result.

It comes down to you to demonstrate what’s possible because in the end, you know that employee engagement influences customer engagement.

As Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh recently shared with me, “If employees weren’t happy, they would not make customers happy. If customers weren’t happy, we wouldn’t be where we are today. We believe that if we get the culture right, then most of the other stuff, like delivering great service, or building a long-term enduring brand will just happen naturally on its own.”

Via Brian Solis: http://www.briansolis.com

A Critical Path for Customer Relevance, Part 2

With all of the momentum social media has earned over the years, the reality is that still today, it is very much siloed in marketing.  The aspiration of using social technology to build a social business is not yet within grasp. In many ways, social media is much more about media than it is about opening two-way channels for interaction where information, empathy, and resolution travel inward and outward with all parties walking away with a sense of value and affinity. For what is a relationship without benefit or bond?

The convergence of disruptive technology, brand, business functions, and customer experiences will force today’s social media strategies to think beyond the click. The end-game moving forward will be on completing the customer journey and fortifying experience pre, mid, and post transaction.

Today, businesses are experimenting with engagement as it relates to real-time interaction. The challenge is in how engagement is defined today. Likes, Retweets, comments, impressions, clickthroughs, and other data does not by its very nature connect back to the bottom line of any organization. Nor does it contribute to the definition of desired experiences or outcomes. Additionally, many social media programs place emphasis on growing what I refer to as the 3F’s, Friends, Fans, and Followers with ancillary value placed on registered content views or downloads. This isn’t without merit. But, this type of focus equates to social branding or social marketing than that of true business transformation.

Often referred to these days as a social business or a social enterprise, the impact and opportunity presented by social and mobile media in addition to other disruptive technologies is to look at each through the lens of experiences.

An example of social branding vs. social business is evident in the report recently published by Jeremiah Owyang, my colleague at Altimeter Group. On average, Owyang’s research found that only 43% of businesses claimed to run social media initiatives under a formalized strategy roadmap to meet specific business goals. In my work over the years with enterprise organizations, I found that the true number of business tracking social media outcomes towards leadership-stated business objectives to be much lower. Equally important, Owyang’s previous research report also documented  the state of the social media silo with the top 2 functions claiming ownership were, and still are, marketing and marketing communications. Most notably of course, in a time when executives are investing in technology to improve customer relationships and experiences, customer service was at the bottom of the list.

This sets a dangerous precedent, one that is already well in play. As the rest of the organization begins to experiment with social media, the initial consequence is that of brand dilution and the fragmentation of desired experiences. For example, in Owyang’s report, he found that businesses on average, those with over 1,000 employees, could account for on average of 178 branded accounts across 10 or more social networks. In my work over the years, I’ve found that number to be in the 1000s, having to examine, refocus, and sunset hundreds of accounts to get back on a bath toward brand integrity. Everything begins with the end in mind and these exercises force thoughtful discussions about intentions, experiences, outcomes, and how to develop an infrastructure that supports the customer journey, as stated earlier, pre-, mid, and post transaction. The experience is not finite, it is an ongoing quest to define.

The Customer Experience Happens With or Without Your Preparedness

Without a top-down social media strategy, presences on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, et al, are by design disjointed. They do not tract to business objectives and more importantly, each entity does not deliver a unified experience that delivers against customer expectations or needs. The answer is simple really. Much of what we see today in terms of social media is not designed to perform against business objectives or customer obligations. Rather, they’re designed to promote real-time interaction and sharing measured by resulting engagement. What if engagement were measured by the resulting sentiment and corresponding actions that followed each exchange? What if those experiences were carefully designed and managed?

In a recent American Express study, customers stated that they are willing to spend more for products from companies that have a history of good customer service or that deliver outstanding experiences. In the same study, we also learned that customers will gladly shift alliances to those companies who will offer better services and experiences. And, more importantly, customers want direct engagement, a human touch, rather than self-guided automated systems that force the customer through a maze of resolution. Of course, this shouldn’t be a surprise. Yet, too often, it is…

The voice of the customer has spoken. They want an efficient, personalized, and engaged experience. For the connected customer, they want your service team and all corresponding methods for delivering resolution to come to them in their channel of preference. But how are companies leveraging social media today to help? This is where we once again see a gap between social branding and social media.

In a study published by Maritz Research and evolve24 in September 2011, 1,300 consumers were asked about the importance  Twitter plays in customer service. The most notable finding as it relates to this discussion is that social customers, unsurprisingly, expect a response if they Tweet to a company for help. As the respondents’ ages increased, so did their expectations that companies would read and respond to their experiences.

Yes as unsurprising as this information is, companies are still faced with the gap between social media and customer service. Of those who did Tweet to their company, only 29% received a response. And when asked how they “felt” following the exchange, 32% and 51.5% either loved it or liked it respectively. Of course they did!

Let’s think about today’s customer experience for a moment. When a customer expresses the need for help in a social channel, who responds? What happens? If indeed social is run by the marketing department, the customer is likely to engage with a community manager, the marketing person on point during that particular time, or perhaps, someone from the agency.

This is the social customer gap as best depicted by a horseshoe .The gap at the top of the image signifies that chasm between social media and customer engagement as it is designed today. On the front line of social is where the biggest gap exists, representing the impractical and inefficient route for which information and resolution must travel between both functions if a customer is to truly walk away with proper closure and positive sentiment in social networks – if at all.

Let’s explore one of the most likely scenarios we see in social media today. A brand manages multiple presences on Facebook and/or Twitter, with one clearly operating as the flagship profile in each network. If these accounts are managed by the marketing department or quasi-governed by it, what happens when a customer has a problem and uses the social network profile as a window to seek direction or resolution? And, on that train of thought, who is on point, what is the workflow, what is the decision tree, and how does this instance get recorded for future engagement and learning? I can’t stress enough the importance of also thinking through not only the engagement process, but also the technology repository and management system. You must capture each engagement, the records, insights, social presences etc., so that marketing, service, sales et al. possesses an absolute and critical view of the social customer across touch points.

Chances are that the grapevine between marketing and customer service is either non-existent or put together with duct tape. So how information travels within the organization, how questions and challenges are resolved, and how companies adapt to learn and improve products and services over time is inoperative. Closing the gap within the social customer horseshoe is a priority area for investment and why the convergence of the contact center, marketing and public relations is a natural step toward getting closer to customers and improving experiences.

Investing in the Convergence of Technology, People and Processes

As a leader or champion within your organization, the time is now to bring together key stakeholders from each function and line of business that is affected by the behavior and sentiment of employees and customers. Doing so is an investment in customer acquisition and retention and also a competitive advantage. Chances are, your peers are exploring where to prioritize these investments now and in the immediate future. As we can see in Owyang’s report, 59% of companies are employing social media management systems (SMMS) to streamline internal processes.

The convergence of disruptive technology, business processes, corporate objectives, and customer experiences is not a luxury nor is it something that can be relegated to the back-burner. It is an inevitable and crucial path to compete for the moment and for the future. Those companies that develop a process to recognize opportunities, to adapt, and to improve experiences now and over time, will out perform those organizations that continue to explore blindly or those who take a sideline approach. In the end, this isn’t about managing transactions or bolting-on new solutions in an attempt to scale, this is about delivering value, empowering employees and customers, fostering meaningful connections, and measuring and learning from results.

It’s time to push the bar higher for social media to shape and steer meaningful experiences and outcomes…

#AdaptorDie

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Via Brian Solis: http://www.briansolis.com