You (don’t) have more power than you think
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 21 Jan 2009, 11:00 AM – 1 Comment
Before social media was common, the bar to get published was higher. You had to get “blessed” by so many people to make the cut.
Today, that “bar to get published” is almost invisible. There is nothing that will prevent you from publishing your thoughts to the world. Not money, not time, not even lack of ideas ( you can just post links from other places) can prevent you from publishing.
Think about it – whatever you do online, you will have a few followers.
Be angry online. And, some other angry people might want to follow you. Or some people who want to know why you are angry might follow you.
Be sad online. And, some other sad people might follow you. Or some other people who want to know why you are sad might want to follow you.
Be happy online. And, some other happy people might follow you. Or some other people who want to know why you are happy might want to follow you.
Be silly online. And, some other silly people might follow you. Or some other people who want to know why you are silly might want to follow you.
Be noisy online. And, some other noisy people might follow you. Or some other people who want to know why you are noisy might want to follow you.
There will always be a few followers. However, treating that as a metric to measure your power and influence might be mis-leading at times.
When it comes to influence, other questions will become important.
Questions such as:
* Who is following you?
[How much influence do these followers have?]* Why are they following you?
[Are they following you because you are following them?]* What alternatives do these followers have?
[Are you one of the thousands they are following?]* How much are they following you?
[What is their level of interest when they follow you? This makes a huge difference. If the interest is luke warm, they may be following you but may not take any action based on what you said]* How are they spreading your message to their followers?
[Not all followers are sneezers. If you have sneezers among your followers, your followers will increase and thus increasing your influence]
Add your own questions to the above and most important – answer them. Otherwise, you might not have as much power as you think you have.
Popularity may not be a direct measure of power and/or influence.
Related Articles:- Don’t like what you are doing OR you are saying you don’t like what you are doing?
- The power of words
- Just being nice is NOT enough
- 25 Tips to Selling in a Recession
Posted in the Main Page category.
RSS
One comment already – Add Yours
Leave a Comment
Peter Nieforth on January 22nd, 2009
Bingo, but questions haven’t changed much over the past 570 years, there is just so much more noise in the electronic world! Candidly, much hasn’t really changed since 1439. 570 years ago is when goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg developed some game changing technology, the mechanical device we called the printing press. Technology of course has evolved but wow, that was game changing! The electronic world allows us to publish and consume content in new and different ways. With technologies like docmetrics (www.docmetrics.com) we can even measure how readers engage with electronic content. But will social media fade and go away? Will blogs be a thing of the past in 200 years time or will my great great great grand children read this post many years from now and laugh? Yes the soapbox – to raise our flamboyant impromptu speeches, agreed, we will have a few followers from the comfort of their own desks!