Could you influence someone on twitter? When someone posted a tweet and no sales or donation come through, would that make that person NOT influential? Maybe. Would someone who has 1000 followers have more influence than someone who has 10,000 followers? It is possible.
There are a lot of talks, in blog posts, podcasts etc, about influence recently. I read on Mark’s blog (one of my favorite blogs out there) where he talked about how there is little influence on Twitter. Mark presented an interesting case about Alyssa Milano, with a Klout score of 84, sent a tweet to her 1.4 million followers with a link to the Amazon page of a book called Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks & How They Shape Our Lives and how it didn’t add any additional sales.
Mark you know you can’t talk about my Alyssa!
Could it be that Alyssa Milano is not influential on Twitter?
Could it be that we’re all in the crazy world where we thought social media have a huge impact but has none at all? Is Malcolm Gladwell right about us not needing Twitter? Could it be that blogs are better than social networking sites just like mark mentioned? Could it be we’re all living in denial?
No.
The reason I say that is because on Twitter, blogs, Facebook, Linkedin, or even offline there is a NEED for belief, trust, and connection. But what went wrong with the tweet?
Hint: Monkey See, Monkey Do.
Influence is defined as the ability to affect the outcome of someone or something, either positively or negatively (in the case of bad influences).
In this case, a tweet to an Amazon page won’t help. People don’t want to be “sold” off unless they believe in something What could help is when you let people know that YOU are reading it or that you are using the book. People don’t want to preached or told, they want to see you doing it. They want to believe or feel connected.
What would make you buy a product? “Title of book –link- ”, or “WOW! This book amazes me on how we can connect with people –link-“. It’s just an example of course, but I would rather buy the latter. You could come up with something more convincing for sure.
If Alyssa Milano talked about her reading it, people would possibly buy because people want to feel connected, people want to follow what she does or what she likes. That is how fashion spreads from one model to her fans. From one designer to tens of thousands of shoppers (not sure about Lady Gaga’s fashion). Seth Godin talked about this as well, where he said that you need to “assemble a tribe” who would truly believe in what you do.
So no matter what medium, whether it is blogs, Twitter, or Facebook, as long as there are people who believe in what you do, then you would be able to have “influence”.
Alyssa Milano’s 38th Birthday
Last year, on Alyssa Milano’s 38th birthday, her birthday wish was to raise $38,000. Result? She raised $39,551 for Charity Water. What caused it? People were willing to do so because they believe in her, they love her, they trust her, and most importantly, they feel connected to her because it is her birthday and they wanted her wish to come true. It was something Alyssa believed in. They believe her too.
No matter whether it’s a blog, a website, Twitter, Facebook, or any other social networking site, people need to believe, they need to feel the passion, and they need to see you leading and believing in what you do in order for them to feel passionate about whatever it is that you do.
Of course there are other factors that will cause influence; this is just one out of the many. What are your thoughts guys?
photo: by ind{yeah}
Very nice post Aaron. One issue with influence is it’s a moving target. Each business and person has different needs. Things the current group of services like Klout can’t capture yet. As with all advertising often cause is hard to determine. What made me buy something or share something? I could of had 150 separate points of stimulus that drove me to action.
You take a much broader view of influence which I give applause to since most of the services really only measure Twitter. With 6-10million US consumers (2-4%) using Twitter each day how can they assume influence? Klout has no idea if I get a Tweet Link and post to Facebook or send via email to my friends. That action is hidden from view.
As for your case study for Alyssa Milano she is one of maybe 5 or 6 celebs I follow on Twitter. She has a good soul (as far as we all can tell) and is a fun person. I bet it would be much harder for her to get us to buy Pepsi than to donate to Charity Water for her birthday. So your points are well stated on why we would be influenced by someone. And with everyone passionate about different things it is not one size fits all when it comes to re-tweeting or passing something on.
In fact the fallacy of Ad.ly in my opinion is the correlation between celebrity and what they are promoting. If Snoop Dogg tweets what his favorite headphones are and I am a hiphop music person I most likely will check it out and share it. But Pepsi? Not from him. Which goes to your designer/tribe point.
Hi Aaron, very interesting. I agree – no matter how big a list you have, just sending them a link isn’t likely to do much, because you aren’t transferring any of that credibility over to the link target. Asking people to do something, or telling them you liked it, is a whole different story. 🙂
For once I have no long comment to share, just simply “I completely agree”. 🙂
Hi Aaron, wow, very interesting read indeed. I completely agree with Danny about targeting. The point you are making about what triggers influence is a very valid one in my view. People don’t want to be told – the least on Twitter, which I believe to be really sophisticated medium where people really like to think for themselves.
Now building on trust and exploring something that one of your followers loves is a whole different matter as you point out.
One note aside is that maybe charity is not quite the same though, even though I agree to your theory. What I would find interesting is the exact example you have given in reality: Wow. This book was one of the greatest reads recently [Link] by (your 😉 Alyssa. Would be really curious how that would turn out.
You know what is coming now? Right, in the Buffer it goes 😉
Aaron this was a very true post that you have written about how it is crucial to really build a tribe of people to believe in what you are trying to do. I mean a great example of what Seth Godin said would be with Steve Jobs how he has built a tribe of users that would purchase anything that he offers to them in record breaking numbers. I have noticed that the number of Facebook friends or Twitter followers means nothing if you don’t engage with them and talk to them. Really great post man
Hello Danny,
Indeed! there is no call-to-action that may caused it. Would be interesting to see if it would work or not if Alyssa Milano did that. Thanks for the comment.
Cheers
Aww! thanks Dennis!
Hi Leon,
Thanks! I think online or offline people don’t like to be told, they want to know “why” and feel connected or believe. Just like what you mention, they don’t like to be told on twitter.
On trust is because people have already knew that someone would recommend a good read, they tend to believe them in a way.
The charity was just an example to show that when people believe in you, they would help, just by telling won’t, similar like offline events, if I were to go up to see and say, go see this book, you might not even look at it LoL
Thanks for buffering!
Hi Justice,
Yes! I actually did so because there is something I want to cover on building a tribe in the future, this was the “starter” of the blog post. Yes Seth and Steve have built an amazing tribe of people, look at the lines for ipad 2, its crazy for people to do so lol! but they believe in the product so much.
Yes! followers means nothing if we don’t engage and build a tribe within.
Cheers and thank you for commenting.
Aaron
Hi Howie,
Yes there are many factors such as familiarity, experience etc that might possible influence, eg: charity water, perhaps I saw a video of people suffering, cancer charity: maybe my family had cancer etc. So you’re right.
Yes! klout is not very accurate because they don’t take in other factors and just based on normal algorithm to calculate influence, they don’t look at drive to action which is I think impossible to get. Like what you mention, action with hidden views.
Alyssa Milano is a great soul, so its great you’re following her too. Haha! if Alyssa milano posted a photo of her drinking pepsi it MIGHT help, who knows LoL! We tough to know how people are influenced by.
But yes, you’re right on about the snoop dog tweet and you buying because you’re in the same tribe as him.
Btw, I notice you like Pepsi!
Aaron
Well said, Aaron. People take heed of the words from those they’ve come to know and trust — and which social media facilitates. Part of the responsibility of earning and maintaining that trust is to take the time to add a few words when recommending (or not) something. It’s why I almost always go old school when retweeting. Now, measuring twitter influence? That would require major algorithms and still won’t be perfect. Same with the lame retweet rank… but that’s a rant for another time 🙂
Good day see you again Tim,
Indeed people take word from who they know and trust, TIME, which is one of the most important factor i guess since earning and maintaining trust takes time like you mention. You and me love the old school of retweet, not sure why people use that button at all.
I doubt there will be an accurate measure for influence now or in the future, i can be wrong 🙂
Aaron
Nonsense: I follow Alyssa Milano and I am neither a fan nor a member of her “tribe”. I suspect this may be typical of Twitter followers. I simply like *some* of her tweets, as with other people I follow. If they try hard to sell me things I stop following them cf Ebert.
Hello Judith, I didn’t say there is only one factor that influences. You might follow because you like her, not that you’re a fan or a tribe that might influence you to do something, merely like some of her tweets as you mention.
Without some type of deeper connection, personal relevance, or an emotional anchor tied to the offer or recommendation I think it’ll flop. That was clearly seen here. This was a great find on your part and even savvier to point out exactly what made her Tweet go down like a lead balloon.
Quality over quantity when it comes to tweets, status updates, or the following you have!
Jon
Hi Jon,
Indeed without an emotional anchor tied to it, people cant related. Reasons why it went down indeed, thanks for putting your thoughts into to. I wanted to show that can be influential, they just need people to believe in them or like Seth says, find a tribe.
Cheers and thoughts for sharing your thoughts.
Aaron
I agree, the type of tweet makes all the difference. With her just saying, “This book, buy it” she is not giving any compelling reason to act on the tweet. But by, as you say, giving a reason for her charity water request, she see’s a positive response.
Thanks Bradley. If one is passionate enough, they’ll give a reason for sure. People will believe in them and support them too. Thanks for dropping by Bradley.
I think the platform does play an important role, overall, though.
I’m not ashamed to say that I have very little influence on Twitter despite my efforts to actively talk to others. It’s not a biggie for me because my blog is what gives me the most room to participate because I have always enjoyed a forum-style approach vs. quick messages.
For some, Twitter can be remarkable if the message is right. I’m not really one of those types of people.
Very interesting subject, overall, Aaron.