The PR guy then went on to say that the site wouldn’t be a success because, “You have to make sure the biggest influencers are ranked at the top.&# Influence Shminfluence The problem with influence is that it all boils down to relevancy. is influenced by what a PR guy is saying about the 2.0 Instead, I’d think he’d be more influenced by bacon writers and pork chefs, and analysts looking at how the pork buy trade will look in the next two years. Influence and Success We need influence. So influence works. world. MORE >>

I was privileged to be on a panel with some outstanding social media practitioners from the insurance industry at the 2011 Social Media Conference for Financial Services put on by LOMA LIMRA this morning. B2B Corporate Blog Facebook influence innovation marketing Social Media social networks Tips Twitter insurance John Hancock LIMRA LOMA New York Life State FarmFinancial services firms – and insurance companies in general – are often seen as boring, but what these companies are doing within the confines of a heavily regulated business is anything but that. With 1.3 MORE >>

Tweet Google+ Ripples is an app that sits natively within Google+, allowing anyone to see the reach and influence of a particular post in G+ once it has been shared. The magic of Google+ Ripples, however, is the ability to search out and target influencers. In this example brand ‘y’ is more effective at leveraging key influencers to spread their message, while their first level influence is lacking. On top of this, you can visualise the spread of the post over time with a scrolling bar that allows you to see the impact a post has at any point along its lifeline. MORE >>

million so it can develop yet another secret metric that purports to measure online influence. The distinguishing feature of its website is a leader board that shows the relative Unmetric scores of various brands in different industries. My opinion of black-box influence metrics has been consistent all along : They oversimplify a complex issue. influence marketingA Chicago company called Unmetric has just raised $3.2 Unmetric monitors brands, not people, but it has the same shortcomings as Klout, PeerIndex and the others: Its methodology is a mystery. MORE >>

don’t know where people are getting the idea that a high Klout score or ‘level of influence’ alone will make them stand out in the crowd. Leaders in Social Media are identified through their own hard work such as speaking engagements, published books, achievements, industry recognitions, honors received, years of dedication, and so on. One thing some people need to understand is that real influence cannot be bought or manipulated. Influence is simply earned throughout your life, work, dedication and achievements. This makes me sick to my stomach. MORE >>