Class lectures for Comm 399: Fundamentals of Social Media, Fall 2012, Department of Communication, Shepherd University.

1. Digital Influence:
Real-time Web
Professor Matthew Kushin, PhD
Shepherd University | Department of Mass Communication | 2012

2. Preview
 Today
 Real Time Web
 Next Class
 Content sites (blogs, websites)

3. Review: Scores?
 Brian Solis states “Influence is not popularity and popularity is
not influence.”
 Sites like “Klout” are controversial.
 People game these sites to increase their scores.
 PR people chase false influencers, wasting time!

4. Review: Digital Diffusion
 Innovations diffuse in our highly networked world today via
social media.
 Problem:
 How influence occurs through these online channels is debated,
often unknown, and people are trying to make $ selling a
‘formula’ it to us 

5. Questions to investigate
 Who is talking about us?
 What are they saying about us?
 What are attitudes about us?
 How are these people influencing the conversation? Today’s Focus
 (How) are we influencing the conversation? Today’s Focus
 Is what we’re doing effective?
Image: Laverue

6. Digital Influence
 Solis defines digital influence as:

7. Foundations of Influence
 Reach: Relationships based on popularity, proximity, and
goodwill in the community.
 Resonance: Authority on subject, trust in messenger, affinity
for messenger.
 Relevance: frequency, length of time, amplitude (how ‘loud’
engagement is in a network) contributing to how long an idea
‘stays alive’ in a social network.
Source: Brian Solis “The rise of digital influence”

8. In other words…
 A Klout score doesn’t mean you have all of these features!
 Example:
 Lady Goggles may have: popularity and affinity among her
followers.
 But not: Authority, trustworthiness, or proximity to a particular
issue of importance… say, responsible personal finance!

9. 2 Types of Connections
Quantity Focused
Social Graph Interest Graph
Friends, family, peers Connections of common interest
Source: Brian Solis “The rise of digital influence”

11. Strategic Campaign Stages
 Research
 Planning
 Execution
 Evaluation

12. Depends on the campaign objective!
 What is the goal of our communications efforts?
 Is it to establish ourselves as an authority?
 Resonance is important
 Interest Graph important
 Build wide-spread awareness?
 Reach & relevance is important
 Social Graph important
 Repair an image that has been damaged?
 Resonance is most important

13. PR Campaigns: Quick Overview
 Each campaign seeks to address a problem:
 Example:
 People feel Burt’s Bees lip balm leaves a bad taste.
 Objectives: measurable & achievable goals to address
situation.
 Informational - inform
 Affective – change attitude
 Behavioral – change behavior

14. Example
 Burt’s Bees has a new, better tasting lip balm!
 Inform – about new lip balm
 Attitude – change attitude that our balm is bad.
 Behavior – perhaps – if we want people to buy our new lip
balm.

15. Influence Measurement
Tools: Real-time Web

16. Archivist
 Url: http://archivist.visitmix.com/
 What is it: Create an archive of Tweets, analyze, export and
share.
 Use: See useful data trends about Twitter activity of your
search

17. Who talks about us the most?
Are they influencers?

18. Lots of possibilities!
 These people we may want to build relationships with
 Let them test drive our cars early, etc.
 If bloggers, could send them Chrysler press releases.
 If everyday fans, pass along news and info to strengthen
loyalty to brand.
 Etc.., etc.

19. Other tools
 Twitter
 Topsy.com/experts
 Klout.com (though not very good)
 Http://mympact.mblast.com/Search.aspx

20. Mini Example!
 Products
 Sentiment
 Positive:
 Negative: Couldn’t Find Any!!
 Audience Profile
 Young people; socially active; diverse interests & locations
 Influencers
Potential
Musician Influencer

21. “Influencers” Competition
 Your employer, Burt’s Bees, has a new lip balm and wants to
get the word out via social media….

22. Goal
 Burt’s Bees has a new lip balm that doesn’t taste bad!!
 Answer the question:
 Who are the type of influencers needed for Burt’s Bees
objective of informing people about the new lip balm?