Influence was one of the most used and abused words of 2010. I probably contributed with my share too.
But it seems like lately everywhere you turn there is a discussion about it, either to redefine the term, to analyze how it should be measured or simply to say that Klout Scores are not relevant.
Let’s face it, Klout has been under fire for the last few weeks. Then you’re not helping yourself when you come out and say that Justin Bieber is more influential than the Dalai Lama, Barak Obama or Lady Gaga (I think Gaga deserves the top spot). But let’s stop right here, bear with me for a second to explain where I’m going with this and make my point. This is a short post.
Should I Not Pay Attention To Klout Then?
I’m not here to recommend you should or shouldn’t use Klout or to question their formula, Justin Bieber is probably more influential than Obama these days anyways. The concern to me is how we use this score, I think it is a fine metric as a marketing tool for your personal brand and I can even see it as some kind of social proof, you know, another counter on your sidebar. But we should not be looking at it as to measure how much influence we really have.
Let’s Step Back For A Second…
According to the dictionary, Influence is the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.
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Yep, it’s that time of the year when we publish and consume an unusual amount of best of and top 10 list. And who am I to change the tradition?
So today I’m delivering a compilation of the Top 10 posts of 2010 right here at SocialMouths. In case you missed something…
Also, there are a couple of things I want you to read at the end of this post =)
But before I start with that I have a quick…
A Thank You Note For My Readers
I want to do this now because I know the last week of December is very slow as many of us disconnect to be with our families.
I can’t deny that this has been a great year for SocialMouths in terms of the things you can measure. I’m at about 50k monthly pageviews, bounce rate is insanely low, the subscriptions are at a growth rate that I didn’t expect and I could keep going… I’m thankful for that because it means some of you like what I’m putting out there.
But I’m mostly thankful for the great connections I have been able to establish as clients, fellow bloggers, readers or just friends. The focus for 2010 was to try to deliver as much as possible without asking for anything in exchange but I was definitely able to also receive so much awesome sauce from you guys that I feel I need to come back in 2011 with much more. So that is the intention!
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Blog traffic, content engagement, online community, social proof, all key aspects of blog marketing. All easily measurable items. But the ultimate goal is one and today my dear friends, we are going to talk about how to measure blog conversion.
Conversion can mean different things for different people. If you blog as a marketing vehicle there are usually two ways of looking at it: a 1-Step process where you directly sell a product and a 2-Step, where your blog focuses on converting a visitor into a prospect, in other words, what we know as Lead Generation. This is usually done through email subscriptions.
Either way, you need to have a way of measuring and visualizing your blog’s performance. Is this possible? Not only it’s possible, it’s also easier than you think.
But let’s start at the beginning. We’ll create an example to explain the process. Let’s pretend you are a consultant/coach for entrepreneurs.
Business Objective vs. Digital Goals
Your business objective has nothing to do with the Internet, it’s a general objective. In this example you sell coaching sessions, you need to find clients that will put you on a retainer for a period of time. That’s your service.
Your digital goals are of course, online focused. What you are trying to accomplish with your blog to get you closer to your business objective. For this example, let’s say that you create content on your blog to attract visitors and on top of that, you have developed other free products to offer those visitors in exchange of an email subscription.
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Followers, Likes, Retweets, Subscribers… Is any of this stuff important? I’m sure you’ve listened to both sides, “get more followers” and “numbers are not important”.
There is a lot of noise on both sides, people telling you that numbers are important are usually trying to sell you some kind of software and people telling you they’re not, have 50k followers and get retweeted like crazy. So which one is it?
I’m going to tell you when and why numbers are important, or not.
Let’s take it step by step…
Business Objectives
First of all, the most important thing is that you understand what your business objectives are and how they translate into online goals. That will make the difference and you will be able to determine if numbers, either high or low, are important for your business AND, if it’s relevant to display them on your site/blog.
Profit Anyone?
How do these numbers affect your bottom line? most likely not directly, having higher Retweets than your direct competitor means nothing on the front-end. Having a bigger influence over that same competitor could mean everything and Retweets, Likes and RSS subscribers could be part of that.
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While a headline like “Online Marketing is NOT a do-it-yourself thing, it’s not automatic and it’s not free” seems to be carrying a little frustation on my part, I actually want the content of this post to be a service to companies starting to take their business online.
Despite the economy, I think launching a business idea is easier than ever. We have the opportunity to test them at a low cost, we can measure results faster than ever and we can fail and move on to the next idea easier than ever. At the same time, this does NOT mean we can just throw anything out there with the hopes it sticks. Competition is brutal and the consumer is more educated and more demanding than ever.
Another aspect I love to point out to my clients is the fact that today, thanks to the internet, we have awesome technology opportunities that are no longer reserved for big companies. Small business also have access to them. On the flip side, there is a “Free” culture out there that is very easily confused by these small companies, as guerilla-style entrepreneurs with very limited budgets sometimes we tend to take on this kind of tools or services that are not necessarily the best option if we intend to… gee, I don’t know, HAVE A RETURN ON INVESTMENT!
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Being successful online requires that you beat a pretty long learning curve and while I try to contribute with my 2 cents, there are amazing bloggers out there that you should be reading on a regular basis.
These people put their amazing talent and knowledge into blog content and deliver it to their online communities week after week.
I have to advise you that if you see that I’m not going with the obvious is for 2 reasons, one because I like helping you discover stuff that you might have missed (there is just too much content out there…) and two, not that I don’t occasionally read the usual suspects, but this is the stuff I visit frequently. Also let me say that this is not a ranking so don’t pay attention to the order.
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The only way to know exactly where you are positioned in the marketplace is to compare yourself with your immediate competitors.
Online, the case is the same. In fact, if what you’re trying to compare is your social media presence, it might even be easier because there is data that’s public and available to you.
I will explain to you how to get started and for that we’ll be using an example in which we’ll compare 3 blogs. In order to get out of the social media circle a little bit, we’ll use blogs in the Career/HR/Working Environment segment which is also a competitive one.
There are a couple of things I want you to consider before we dive into our exercise. First, I’m not suggesting that a business that has a higher reach online or a better mention sentiment is more profitable, they are two separate things. Now, an exercise like this will open your eyes on how much stronger your competitors are or if they are stronger only in certain areas.
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Last week I posted the Poll “What Is Your Biggest Struggle In Blogging?” and with your participation, this week we’re doing a come back with quick advice for each one of those points.
I like doing polls as a way of starting discussions on topics that are important to you, that way it’s not just my point of view. So first, thank you all for being part of it and second, feel free to use the comments section to express your thoughts. Maybe you have something to add or you simply disagree, it’s all good baby!
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