Discussion... what makes “influence” online?\n\n
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What are the important trends related to your topic... what are people talking about? what’s sparking conversation? \n
what issues are at stake? are there big picture issues that come to the surface... are there negative issues/complaints that we need to correct?\n
who is leading the conversation? who are people pointing to as particularly insightful/knowledgeable in your topic area? \n
who is listening to those influencers and participating in those conversations? what communities have already formed on social media outposts around our organization, issue or topic?\n
start with: is your focus narrow or wide?\nwhat does that mean? \n\n
I use these levels to help organizations think about the different things that they can produce content around... but it also works if you are thinking about influencers and audience. \n\n
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where do you look? depending on your topic, there are influencers and audiences in each of these different mediums (and there are more mediums than this... these are the “biggies.”) \n
finding blogs... \n
check out advanced search options, too. \n
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tineye is a reverse search engine... put in the photo and it’ll tell you where it appears! \n
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what is delicious? why would you want to search it? \n
what can you search on Facebook?\n
the players, according to Solis’ compass define how, when why and to what extent activity is intermediated across the Social Web. \n
Advocates/stakeholders: Those individuals who maintain a stake in the brand and the success of the company, through emotional, strategic, or financial investment—and are usually among the first line of external champions.\n
Traditional media: Reporters, journalists, analysts, and other forms of mainstream and vertical media who already reach our intended audiences.\n
New influencers/trust agents: Individuals who focus a noteworthy portion of their updates, content, and voice on particular topics, industries, or markets.\n
Champions: Whereas advocates and stakeholders have skin in the game to some extent, champions are merely inspired to share their experiences and views because they are passionate, compelled, or incentivized.\n
Bloggers/market makers: Bloggers and market makers represent what some refer to as the “A-list.” This elite group can steer, shape, and galvanize activity that moves markets based on their views.\n
Tastemakers/Magic Middle: Tastemakers and the magic middle are distinct from new influencers and trust agents, and, depending on the industry, serve as a subset of them. In their own way they make markets and spark trends based on their activity. Tastemakers are the trendsetters and, in the Social Web, they usually boast notable followers and connections who emulate their behavior, whether it’s explicit or implicit, on behalf of the tastemaker. The term Magic Middle was coined by David Sifry, who at the time was CEO of Technorati, the world’s largest blog network; he defined this group as bloggers who maintained an inbound link volume of between 20 to 1,000 links.\n
Halo 2: Platform\nEvery initiative requires a platform upon which to connect, communicate, and congregate. These platforms represent existing and also emerging categories that are worthy of our attention today and tomorrow: mobile networks, social microsites, widgets, forums and groups, blogs, social networks, content creation, events, microcommunities.\n\n
Halo 4: Emotions/Sentiment\nThe socialization of the Web is powered by people, and it is a movement that is bound by the same natural laws that govern human behavior. Successful branding is made possible when individuals can establish a human and emotional connection. In social networks, the brand is represented by you and, for that reason, we must factor compassion, care, and feeling into our planning. Connect from the heart.\nreciprocation, empathy, recognition, core values, resolution, empowerment, humanization, honesty, reward, value proposition, believable, sincerity\n
