Defining objectives and setting benchmarks are key components of a successful communications campaign. Unfortunately, all campaign outputs aren’t as easy to measure as the number of new volunteers, e-blast signups, new clients and dollars raised. Some outputs are less tangible – like influence. Certainly, a company could presume that a new client who came on board as a direct result of the company’s latest social media campaign could declare they influenced that one individual, but how do you define and quantify influence before you reach a dollars and cents outcome?
The social fundamentals
When my colleague and I lead social media workshops, we start by defining the core value of social media – community building. Whether it is reaching new audiences or becoming better engaged with existing audiences, it’s about getting the right people in the virtual room. Once you have the right people in the virtual room, it’s about messaging – what are you telling people? how are you telling it to them? and, why are you telling it to them?
The messages themselves drive at the core of influence – what is your desired outcome? What are you trying to influence people to say, do or think? Answering these simple questions is the key to defining influence as it relates to your organization.
Influence isn’t a numbers game
Certainly, nobody wants to talk to a sparsely populated room…let alone an empty one. That said, one also doesn’t want to talk exclusively to people who fall outside of their target audience. When thinking about influence and striving to become an influencer, remember that it is more valuable to be highly influential to a small group of people within your target audience than to be slightly influential to a large group of people who aren’t your target audience. If you dedicate time to interacting with this small group and building relationships with them, your dividends will exceed those earned by pushing information out to the wrong people. Sometimes less really is more.
Influence isn’t about quantity
I recently learned my Klout score had fallen by one point. When reviewing the analytics, it became apparent that my score dropped because my volume of tweets had fallen over the past week. While consistent outreach is an important component of a successful communications campaign, one does not instantly become less influential by tweeting twice per day as opposed to three times per day. If you tweet twenty times in one day and not for six months thereafter, well, that’s another story…
Based on the quantity model, one would be more influential by sharing five random headlines they copied and pasted from Google than they would be by carefully choosing and sharing two articles that were relevant to their target audience. Remember, quality always prevails.
As you work to increase your influence, remember to start with the basics – define your objectives, identify your target audiences and make quality a priority. Most importantly, set realistic benchmarks for your outreach efforts and develop a definition of influence that is relevant to your organization.
Danielle M. Cyr
@Danielle Cyr
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