We’re lucky to live in an age where squishy words like “influence” are acquiring mathematical meaning. We’re very lucky that someone recognized this development early and wrote a book about it. And we’re very, very lucky that person is Mark Schaefer, a marketer who is as comfortable with business metrics as he is the human elements that make them move.
Schaefer’s book, “Return on Influence” pierces the veil that shrouds social scoring tools like Klout, Kred and PeerIndex. He points out that for the first time ever, marketers — whether from the business, government or NGO world — can see the people who hold the most sway online about their brands. This evolutionary leap forward in our field is hard to understand without context, and that’s where the author’s research shines. From the 1840s to the 1960s, Schaefer looks at how influence has played a role in marketing goods and services. He fast forwards to today, serving up case studies of how scoring tools are being used to find brand advocates, boost impressions, improve consumer feedback, launch products, and (my favorite) advance thought leadership in the B2B world.
Schaefer explores the two opposing schools of thought on how these new metrics will impact society.
The first foresees an Eden of influence where everyone gets treated as a celebrity in their niche topic. The second predicts a caste system where elite thought leaders keep everyone else down, especially the young who haven’t built up their reputations yet. He takes an unflinching look at where scoring systems have work to do, such as accounting for people who enjoy larger amounts of influence offline than they do online.
When picking up the book, a question that’s sure to be top-of-mind is, “will this teach me how to raise my Klout score?” The short answer is “yes.” Based on his extensive research and unprecedented access to the people who create social score algorythyms, Schaefer provides an in-depth guide to growing your score.
But more valuable than putting points on the board is knowing how to actually become more influential. For that, Schaefer draws on principles developed by Dr. Robert Caldini, the author of ”Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” Caldini’s six principles of what makes people influential – consistency, social proof, authority, likability, scarcity and reciprocity — are all explored through the social media and social scoring lenses.
Historical perspective, explanations of scoring methodologies and PhD-level psychological insights: Schaefer has stirred these ingredients into a potent potion. Bottoms up.
