haven’t reviewed these tools in detail just yet, but it appears that influence is a red-hot topic in PR and marketing circles right now. Influence measurement is a natural evolution of conversation monitoring, a discipline that’s personified by Salesforce.com’s Radian6 tool and dozens of competitors. Topaz Partners has developed the "Circle of Influence" to depict the different factors that go into decision-making (Click to enlarge). This isn’t stopping vendors from tackling the even more complex issue of Influence analysis. MORE >>

Altimeter Group just released “ The Rise of Digital Influence , A How-To Guide for Businesses to Spark Desirable Effects and Outcomes Through Social Media Influence.” ” This report by Principal Analyst Brian Solis caught my attention because of my focus on spotlighting the differences between online influence and online popularity. As my blog readers know, I always argue that popularity is not influence and vice versa. The Altimeter report on digital influence studies influence software vendors like Klout, Kred and PeerIndex. MORE >>

T: Much of commercial communications comes from established professional disciplines like public relations, advertising, or marketing. G: How would you define a social media “influencer” and how do you measure influence? He’d probably think the modern man has gone plumb insane writing unending volumes on topics such as influence. My own writing on the topic is merely an effort to highlight the absurdity of reducing such a complex, multifaceted concept as influence to a two digit or elementary ranking. T: Marketing to influencers is definitely overrated. MORE >>

Brass Tack Thinking Make Things Happen Home About Amber Naslund Tamsen McMahon Contact Speaking Amber Naslund Tamsen McMahon Brass Tack Reading Archives 4 Things You Need to Know About Influence September 3, 2010 | by Tamsen McMahon View Comments Want to build influence? Here are four things you need to know: Influence is simple… which makes it complicated. At its most simple, influence is the ability to make things happen. Some people influence ideas, some actions. Some influence big actions, some small. Influence is contextual. For whom? MORE >>

I’m back from my keynote speech for the American Marketing Association – West Michigan where I talked about Influence. In my speech I reinforced my blog assertions that popularity is not influence and influence is not popularity. But then I added a new twist when it comes to measurement: As marketers, we need to start focusing on measuring intent instead of just measuring online influence. believe it’s not just how popular somebody is online or how much influence they have, but whether they are intending to use that influence to effect change. MORE >>