Return on Influence

At first blush, influence sit at the opposite end of the commodification problem. It's the GPS, portable version of your own brand -- you can wear it any time, anywhere to find your true North. Because influence starts with you and the return you derive from where you choose to spend your time, it is highly personal. Yet it is also a socially-recognized phenomenon -- influentials -- and a term adopted in social media --  as Paul Dunay describes:

"For most of us, traditional Web analytics are not sufficient to measure, track and compare the results from social media. So perhaps that requires a completely new and different set of metrics."

To measure an entirely new set of activities and, he presents, standards.

Podcasters Mark Blevis and Steve Hardiman offered some initial points of discussion for return on influence. They said (liberally edited here):

• It recognizes the potential of any channel and the communities that adopt it. In the context of social media, producers and consumers share the potential. They can both influence and be influenced by the communities in which they participate.

• It's a change in mindset. It subscribes to new-age thinking about personal and corporate brands. It follows less tightly the measurement of success based on quantifiable financial metrics and relies more on a number of key elements to derive success from influence.

• The influence of an individual participating in social media is not a function of wealth or celebrity; influence is a function of the individual’s, or organization’s, “social currency” –- their credibility and contribution in the community of ideas. Influence is authentic and cannot be coerced.

Maybe return on influence accrues on the value of contribution. If the return in traditional terms -- for example as currency -- matters less, the portable brand as influence matters more. Are organizations working on having their own versions of portable brands? If so, the question becomes one of "who" vs."what". The same question that Jim Collins has been asking for a number of years -- get the right people on the bus, I heard him say more than 6 years ago.

In that case how is the tension between individuals' true North, their own personal brands and the company's brand resolved? Do you resolve it? Does it need resolution?

[tip of the hat to Pier Luca Santoro for the Twitter request on ROI as return on influence]

Comments

[Joe Raasch]

Hi Valeria,

This post instantly brought to mind one of your best posts (IMHO) EVER:

"How do you go from Start to Success?" from 26 March 2007.

In this post you answer the question (for me...) on how to resolve the tension between one's true North/personal brand and the company's brand.

ROI = Return On Influence is a key concept in the talent management field as well. Sure, hire great people. The question to ask is: can we profit from this 'talent'? If not, we're not matching skill/will/resource of our new hires to our mission. Which then leads our teams to ask the questions you pose above.

This "return on influence" approach has far-reaching impact...dare I say INFLUENCE!

[Pier Luca Santoro]

Dear Valeria,
It has been, once again, a great idea to ask via twitter to readers and followers/fellows the topics for the posts of the week. This really IS conversation. Thanks to have chosen the one I suggested.
Every one writing on this topic is discussing the qualitative elements that best describe return on influence and some months ago I tried to do so as well [http://www.marketingblog.it/return-on-influence/social-media/users-media/consumer-media/new-media/influenzare-gli-influenzatori/opinion-leaders/engagement/roi--roi-from-return-to-investment-shifting-to-return-on-influence.htm ]
I'm asking my self - and to you and your readers/contributors - how to shift from qualitative to quantitative measurements as we tried to point out a today in our collaborative space Marketing Agorà [http://marketingagora.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/numerica-ponderata/ ]
Once we will have made a Map on these items I'll send it to you to keep talking about this important subject.
Ciao.
Pier Luca Santoro

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Joe -- fit is important at so many levels: culture, job type, team, etc. The outcomes in alignment, performance, influence, etc. all depend on fit. Thank you for helping me flesh out that point. So how you enroll yourself to help others get results while you fulfill your mission goes to satisfy that tension.

@Pier Luca -- I posed the question back on Twitter. So far, no takers. It's a hefty one because I think that part of influence is quality of thought. But, I know there are specific actions we take as a result of influence so possibly what we measure is the outcome from those actions. It's kind of like what your customers' customers do in a B2B model. You inspired me to push further, thank you!

[John]

Lots of companies are trying to sell this stuff - but just ask the simple question can you actually quantify an intangible. Of course not. Measure and remeasure everything you can but don't assume everything is quantifiable. If it were, we'd all be outsourced.

[Pier Luca Santoro]

@Valeria: Thanks again to you. As I said we are thinking about making a map with all the terms related with influence and then try to give them a value.
The method should be - more o less -like Forrester's external blog ROI or mine about internal blog ROI. As you know we made a wiki to collaborate , also, on this topic........if you wish to join you are welcome.

@John: We are not trying to sell nothing just fed up [not in reference to you, obviously] with opinions would like to shift to facts/data.

Ciao.

Pier Luca Santoro

[Valeria Maltoni]

@John -- thank you for this delicious comment, I will post a whole thought on this very idea of things that are not quantifiable yet extremely valuable tomorrow.

@Pier Luca -- I saw the wiki, the eye can consume much more than the physical body right now. No worries, I will circle back with you all, in time.

[Gavin Heaton]

Return on Influence is a great way of looking at social media metrics. There is a real need for some tools in this space ... and I think they need to be imagined in a completely new way.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Gavin -- if you come out with something good, please broadcast. We're are all looking for proof that is more than just "try it, you'll see". I'm working on some ideas myself, very stealthily.