Mark Schaefer - Return On Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring, and Influence Marketing

For generations, influence was determined by who owned the press. In an age where everyone has that power via social networks, reputation managers must learn how to find, engage, and partner with the people shaping their brands. Schaefer provides unmatched insight into the newest ways to find who matters.

HAROLD BURSON, Founder, Burson-Marsteller

Return on Influence is an astoundingly fluid read thanks to Marks conversational writing style. His profound insights on influence are shared via first-hand experiences as a world-class social media and marketing leader, interviews with influential leaders, relevant case studies and a deep dive into what Klouts all about. This book provides a path for understanding and optimizing influence as a positive force in your world, whether youre an innovative individual or a global brand.

BILLY MITCHELL, President & Senior Creative Director, MLT Creative

In the past, corporate and government leaders built strong networks of influence one relationship at a time. Mark Schaefers latest book explains how todays social media stands that model on its endenabling average citizens to create even more influential networks by the tens-of-thousands in a fraction of the time.

CHRIS PETERS, CEO, The Lucrum Group

In a world afflicted with continuous partial attention, its intellectually refreshing to read Mark W. Schaefers clearly written Return on Influence. Determining influence in online and offline conversations, understanding the power and premise of social scoring, and connecting with niche influencers give a hint to the level of research invested in these twelve chapters. Communicators and CMOs will find a game-changer. The ultimate influencer will harness the insight in Schaefers book and leverage it for more and better business.

ANNE DEETER GALLAHER, Owner/CEO, Deeter Gallaher Group LLC

Copyright 2012 by McGraw-Hill. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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For Rebecca, who demonstrates every moment, every day, the only kind of influence that really matters.

PART 1
The Roots of Influence

PART 2
Klout and the Social Scoring Revolution

By Lee Rainie,
Director, Pew Research Centers Internet & American Life Project

The idea of influence is rooted in astrology. Some long-ago Gauls started using the word influence because they figured the reason people often acted as they did lay in the stars, which emanated a force that pushed our ancestors in one direction or another. It had to be that inflow of cosmic vibes that accounted for the weird way people reacted to things. Centuries later, of course, the idea of being under the influence took on a wholly different meaning.

Research in recent decades has taken a lot of the mumbo-jumbo and guesswork out of the study of influence. Indeed, it was a giant breakthrough in the mid-twentieth century when the scholars Paul Lazarsfeld, Elihu Katz, and their disciples theorized that influence emerges from a two-step flow of communication. The idea was that opinion leaders filter information between the mass media and ordinary citizens, and it was their encounters with discussion among those elite influentials about new information that really drove the way citizens formed opinions and made decisions. The scholars insight was that individuals are influenced more by the people with whom they interact than by the messages they get from mass media. It was a theory eagerly embraced by marketers, political practitioners, communications gurus, public health advocates, and those who study the dissemination of innovation and ideas.

One of the many disruptions caused by the digital age has been to the two-step theory. Mark Schaefers original insights here are a testament to that. The digital disruption has not challenged a core tenet of two-step proponents that influence flows from encounters with others. But three revolutions in the digital space have brought new kinds of actors, new kinds of encounters, and new kinds of information into the influence marketplace.