“Lady GaGa is popular, Bono is influential” — a great analogy to explain the difference between popularity and influence.
Vocus recently hosted a Webinar presenting the results of a survey on influence with Brian Solis, Here are some of my takeaways from the Webinar:
- What is the difference between popularity and influence? Clicks and votes drive popularity but not influence — influence is earned.
- Quality is better versus the quantity (number of people) in a network when making a person or brand influential. Being relevant, having resonance and significance is the critical path to go down when trying to become an influential person within social media.
- For social media success metrics: set your goals, measure them in more than one way, and study your metrics over time.
- Numbers don’t equal influence. A tight connection to a handful of fans/friends is more likely to drive outcome than loose connections to thousands of people.
- People follow influencers that share relevant content, they have a personal connection with that person, and that individual is also recognized as a thought leader.
The quote about Lady Gaga got me to thinking… she is popular, and with more than 6 million followers on a verified Twitter account, she clearly has reach. So what’s the difference between “reach” and “ popularity?” We didn’t ask this question on the survey, so we posed this question on the Webinar – and here’s the result:
We are putting the final touches on the survey results and expect to have those out next week.
