Recently, one of the nation's leading consumer packaged goods companies approached Real Girls Media and Meredith Interactive to spearhead a massive three-month social media campaign targeting women. Unlike most advertisers' first attempt, which often rely on uninteresting display ads within social communities (we all had to learn the hard way, right?), this client recognized that in order to increase demand for its product, it needed to tap the voices of an elite set of online influencers who would be responsible for "driving" conversations about wellness.

It became clear to me that influence is alive and thriving as the new online currency.

Marketers are increasingly using sponsored conversations as they see how digital media thought leaders are successfully serving multiple functions: persuading others' opinions and behaviors, being a source for new content and information, standing up as a leading voice of a community, challenging ideas (not people), and more. You may recall from Malcolm Gladwell's book "The Tipping Point" that a few "hyperconnected influentials" tend to be responsible for the viral spread of fads, fashions, ideas, and behaviors.

As I set out to identify and secure three female digital "powerhouses" whose personas were a perfect match with the client's product and brand values, I realized that influence may be widely understood in a broad sense, but it's not entirely clear how to precisely define or measure it. Too often advertising and public relations executives make the mistake of taking a shortcut by looking only at a person's footprint related to the newest fad (such as the number of followers on Twitter). But influence is more complex than it sounds, so I believe it must be assessed using multiple metrics and considered relative to other metrics being evaluated. Think about it this way: Would you choose a spouse based solely on one characteristic?

After my own deep dive into the influence measurement abyss, I've come up with insight and practical guidance that will help you more easily find and leverage the best voices to market your brand. (Keep in mind that this process may be better suited for outsourcing, since it's time intensive and some ad networks and agencies have already profiled hundreds of influencers).

The components of influence
Influencers make an impact and achieve their status by being a frequent and strong voice over time, building a sizable audience that trusts their opinions and content, remaining authentic, and supporting and listening to the community.

There are probably three or four of these thought leaders that instantly pop into your mind. Let's use these right now in our measurement exercise. Create a Microsoft Excel chart. Place each person's name in a row, and create the following column headers: audience size, audience quality, audience engagement, authority, and personal brand. Next, use the information below to help you determine a value (e.g., 1 is lowest and 5 is highest) for each characteristic that the various influencers demonstrate. The sum of these characteristics determines a person's overall online influence relative to the peers you selected. If one of the qualities is more important to your particular campaign or efforts, then use a weighted scale to determine which person is a better fit. For example, say you want to commission someone to advocate a sustainable clothing line. Authority and expertise will likely be more critical elements than the length of time the person has been publishing content online.

Focus on audience quality, not just quantity
If your advertising goal is purely exposure and massive reach, then leveraging digital influencers shouldn't be your strategy.

"It's not about reaching huge numbers. Sponsored conversation is about reaching the right target audience in a way where it sticks," said Anita Campbell, who was interviewed in a recent iMedia Connection article about building a better bond with bloggers.

However, you should record a person's online reach (in the audience size column, enter the amount of monthly unique visitors to the person's blog) during this process so that you can compare it to others' reach and establish a benchmark going forward that suits your needs.

Evaluate audience size using this metric: average monthly unique visitors (determined via free services like Quantcast or Compete).

Why must we now discover the influencer's audience quality? Two reasons: Not all audience members are created equal in your brand's eyes, and people use more than one platform or community to expose their voices. So to determine the quality or overlap of the person's social media audience and your brand's target, add up the number of contacts a person has on all social networks and communities. But for the communities that are most related to your brand, double the size of the influencer's contacts.

As an example, suppose you want to use sponsored conversation to market NetJets. The number of contacts "Flyboy Phil" possesses on a high-end travel community such as A Small World should be weighted twice as much as the number of fans he has on a generic community like Facebook.

Evaluate audience quality using these metrics: weighted number of connections and audience growth (on that person's blog or columns) over the past year.

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