An application called MrTweet caught my attention over the weekend, mostly due to a discussion on influence initiated by its creator, Steve Ming Yeow Ng. Check out the discussion at the MrTweet blog.

Two important points from the discussion:

1. Influence is in the eye of the audience.

2. No such thing as a universal grade for influence.

These points resonate with Josh Greenbaum’s comments, as well as the mantra shared by Duncan, Nick, me and the rest of Influencer50.

As for MrTweet: I’m on the record as a died-in-the-wool skeptic on these kinds of applications. None have given me worthwhile recommendations or insights to date. Now MrTweet is in the hot seat. I’ve followed MrTweet and will share my thoughts once it returns something. As with so many of these social network applications, MrTweet puts an awfully big stake in the ground:

“I’ll suggest to you which influencers and followers you should check out.”

OK, MrTweet. Pimp my twitterverse.

Popularity: 1%

Today I saw 2 more threads in the ongoing debate over whether social media popularity is a good way to measure influence.

First, my colleague Duncan Brown writes that Google is launching an AdWords-style SEM program across big social networks.

As an online publisher, I can see how this Google program makes perfect sense for media buyers. It will play from Madison Avenue to Main Street. After all, the big advertisers say they plan to shift their remaining 2008 and 2009 spending, cutting traditional ad spending while increasing spending on word of mouth and other forms of social media. (For the latest CMO study visit Epsilon; hat tip to Ken Rutowski for flagging it in his newsletter.) Google is offering just the right media product to pick up those extra dollars and euros. I’ve got no issue there.

However, I do see a potential downside. Call it collateral damage. Google is portraying the program as a measure of influence. Duncan describes the confusion this could cause:

“If Google’s plans get more firms to talk about influence, then fine. But I fear that it will dumb influence down to a few ‘magic’ numbers that have tenuous relevance to real influence.”

Meanwhile, Graham Hill and I compared notes this morning on Peter Kim’s post, “Influencer Lists as Ego Traps“. We came up agreeing, in Graham’s words:

“Popular people are not necessarily good influencers. And influencers are not necessarily popular. There is much more to it than that.”

We’ve got some very bright people on both sides of the debate — those advocating that we equate influence with popularity/connectedness, those advising against it. Neither side is ready to blink.

In the end, the media buyers may have the final vote on whether online popularity is the path to the influentials.

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Many analyst relations departments survey their internal users and their analysts in the spirit of measuring satisfaction with AR programs, tools and processes. All too often, the results are too positive or too negative. In other words, the results are stilted to serve near-term budgeting, review or political agendas. This week’s CRMBuyer.com column by Louis Columbus, “Measuring Customer Satisfaction Like You Mean It”, provides a helpful reminder of top do’s and don’ts when designing a customer satisfaction measurement project, from constructing the sample to using results beyond a stand-up presentation.

Mr. Columbus is an expert on CRM and the author of “Getting Results from Your Analyst Relations Stratgies”, available on Amazon.

Reprinted from Tekrati

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The Analyst Strategy Group, founded by former SageCircle analyst relations consultants, offers its 2004 Tech Buyers Study and related deliverables. Visit the ASG Web site for survey highlights (display highlights by rolling your cursor over the thumbnail charts), and to download a descriptive study scope sheet. Note that ASG suggests including company executives and members of the sales leadership team when considering its option for purchasing a live 90-minute review session of survey findings. The 2004 ASG study reflects almost 500 individual responses, providing what ASG believes to be statistically significant findings for the North America, EMEA and Asia/Pacific regions, as well as several vertical markets. The types of tech buyer information included:

• Analyst firm usage and the importance of individual analyst firms within each region
• Analyst and consulting firm usage and importance based on IT buyer company size
• The credibility of each of the major analyst firms, with differences noted by region and vertical market
• The role and relative impact of the media, analysts and consultants in each stage of the buying process
• Individual analyst/consultant vs. firm credibility in each geographic region

Reprinted from Tekrati

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Reporting from SNCR’s New Communications Forum 2005:  A breakthrough solution from Cymfony helps Fortune 1000 companies understand and measure digital influencers. Cymfony’s new Consumer Insight (TM) addresses the distinct and rapidly growing need to monitor, assess and analyze consumer-generated media.

Part of Cymfony’sDashboard series, the new tool helps marketing, branding, research, marketing communications and competitive intelligence professionals analyze consumer discussions, trends and sentiment expressed in blogs, message boards, customer feedback sites, consumer emails, usenet groups and other consumer content to gain immediate market intelligence. It analyzes over four million consumer postings per day delivering valuable insight about what potential and existing customers, competitors and employees are discussing that may have significant effect on a company’s products, reputation, people and sales. In short, it delivers real-time market intelligence and measurements of how a company is perceived in the “blogosphere.” Source: Business Wire VPO for.

Reprinted from Tekrati

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