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There is currently a heated debate in blogosphere and in social networks about the correlation between the size of your following (ie: number of followers in Twitter, number of fans in Facebook pages, etc) and the real influence.
Many people argue that number of followers could be easily gamed and increased through automated scripts. And even if you’re followed back by many people, including influential players, it could be done merely as a matter of courtesy. It doesn’t mean that you have any relationship with them or can influence them in any way.
Usually you hear this argument from people who themselves don’t have large followings.
First, if you have a larger following, you have a better chance to get re-tweeted and to draw attention of the person with big influence, such as Twitterati. The same goes for Facebook pages. If your page has more fans, it ranks higher in Facebook searches for a particular keyword, and has higher potential to go viral.
Second, even if a Twitterati follows you back out of courtesy, you now have a chance to start building relationship with him. And if you provide interesting content or unique perspective then your relationship might grow.
So yes, number of followers is important in my book.
Of course, big following by itself is useless without active engagement.
There is another argument that number of followers is not as important as the ratio of people you follow to the people who follow you.
The theory goes that the closer this ratio to 0 the more influential is the person in question (for example if somebody “following “ 1000 people and is followed by 100,000 then the ratio is 0.01 (1000 divided by 100,000).
I think this ratio has its merit as part of the equation, but it means squat on its own. If a person is followed, it doesn’t mean that his/her follower will take action upon his/her words.
I am not going to drop names here but there are quite a few celebrities with 1,000,000+ followers who only follow a handful of people. Many twitterers agree that their tweets are worthless. Yet people continue to follow them out of curiosity. It doesn’t mean however that their influence is very strong.
Sure, there are @techcrunch and @mashable, each with over 1,000,000 followers. Both are very worth following. But on each TechCrunch there are hundreds of celebrities and buffoons whose tweets are absolutely useless.
On another hand, there is @GuyKawasaki who doesn’t have 1,000,000 followers yet. But his influence is much bigger on social networks than that of many celebrities.
So the social influence is not a question of a followers-to-friends ratio, rather it’s a measurement of reach and engagement.
I follow back many people, so my ratio is rather high. But I do this on purpose. Why? I like to have real conversation with people, and conversation is a two-way street. It’s only possible between mutual friends. That is, between people who follow each other.
Of course I don’t follow porn accounts or accounts with just a few tweets. But if you have something interesting to say about my topics of interest, there is a good chance that I will follow you.
And just as well, out of principle, I un-follow everyone who doesn’t follow me back. Yes, I give ample time to read my tweets and to decide whether to follow me or not. But if I’m not followed after certain period of time, I will un-follow you. No exceptions. No ifs or buts.
I don’t care if twitterer is a celebrity or a high-ranking political figure. If I want to get updates about his (or her) activity, I can just subscribe to RSS feed or use other tools to stay informed.
But Twitter is a platform for social communications, and building relationship only possible with mutual followers. The same goes for Facebook or any other social network.
Plus, both in Facebook and Twitter, there is a limit of people you can follow. So I’m not going to keep a spot for somebody who doesn’t care to follow me back.
At the end of the day here is what really important as a measure of your influence in social networks : how many people take action (ie: retweet, visit blog, donate, vote or do anything else) as a result of your words.
Ok, this post is getting a little long, so I will discuss other parameters and criteria useful for the evaluation of social influence, in the next post.
Looking forward to read your comments.
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Other Interesting posts about influence in Social networks:
Social Media Today | Twitter Influence
Graders: Behind the Green … – Does influence on Twitter matter? And, if it does, what is the best way to measure it? On the first question it seems reasonable to say influence only matters if all or part of the reason you are.
Scope Of Twitter’s Influence – PRWeek … – Measurement Tool Analyzes Scope Of Twitter’s Influence – PRWeek – 03/01/2010.
Twitter: Influence vs Popularity |
Business Computing World – But how can you tell if a flamer has any influence on Twitter?
Looking at the number of people following that profile will give you an indication of popularity, but it’s not a good indicator of influence. For example, a disgruntled …
Twitter Influence Survey: Your Thoughts Appreciated : Thrifty and … – I am doing a bit of research on how companies presence on Twitter affects you the consumer…
Justin Kownacki – How “The Influencers” Use Twitter to Make a … – I’m no Twitter “influence”, in fact I’m far from it, but the great thing about social media is just that.
There are no rules. We are people, not robots, and we have to remember that. Trying to fit a mold of what has worked for someone …
WE twendz Grabs PR Innovation of the Year Distinction at 2010 PR …
- a Twitter influence analytics service that helps measure brand impact and engage audiences on Twitter. …
SiliconANGLE — Blog — Twitter Data Suggests A New Class Of Web … -
What’s even more exciting is that the notion of influence is changing. The Internet, social networks, Twitter, Facebook, and social media have globalized and opened up influence to the masses. …
With Klout Comes Influence: Measuring And Modifying List Authority … – San Francisco-based Klout is no stranger to measuring influence on the Social Web. The company launched at SXSW Interactive 2009 to help Twitter users discover the voices that the world listens to (on Twitter anyway). ..
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