Audience engagement and participation
The voices that are most impactful are the ones who are genuinely motivated to be a source of information while also caring about the person being influenced. This sensitivity prompts readers to not only dive deeper into the influencer's life and opinions, but to also share and participate with the influencer on a personal level, thereby creating a relationship in which they feel heard or understood. This type of connection keeps readers engaged over the long-term.
Evaluate audience engagement using these metrics: user average page turns and time spent onsite; average number of user comments per post; number of participants in a forum led by the influencer; YouTube ratings; widget interactions; and Facebook wall posts.
Authority and expertise
Authority is not something quickly or easily achieved; a person must earn it over time based on the unique insight and high-quality niche content he or she shares. Authenticity must be at the influencer's core, so be sure to find evidence that the person is honest about what he or she knows and doesn't know. Remember this: If someone heavily promotes and boasts having real authority, it's most likely a facade. They cannot claim it, they have to demonstrate it.
While I agree that an online content creator's Google Page Rank is important, I don't believe it's the only metric to be considered, nor do I think a massive number of Twitter followers automatically establishes someone as an authority. Sure, there are several good metrics for measuring influence on Twitter, but this platform doesn't serve the entire picture of someone's comprehensive influence and impact across digital media.
Evaluate authority using these metrics: recommendations (i.e., retweets, share stats), inbound links (blogrolls), Technorati's authority ranking, Google Page Rank, Twitter follower/following ratio (the higher above 1, the more influence the person has), Twitalyzer ranking, a large amount of Twitter followers who themselves have lots of followers (meaning that they already have credibility in the Twittersphere), event/conference speaking experience.
Personal brand and consistency
To measure the level of trust an individual has built online, you must review his or her personal brand, which is defined as an aggregated representation of online activity. This means you have to look across all social networks and sites in which the person participates to understand the collective persona, track record, and consistency of his or her voice. The stronger and more streamlined the personal brand, the more trust the audience possesses in him or her.
I once invited a fitness blogger to participate in a paid program for a product that contained high fructose corn syrup. She turned me down instantly despite the generous pay rate, saying that readers' trust in her helpful health content was more important than revenue. This is what I call authenticity.
Evaluate personal brand using these metrics: number of RSS subscribers, content quality ratings, percentage of repeat visitors, average number of updates and blog posts, history (length of time) on various social networks, and number of mutual connections across social networks.
Finally, add up the column values to discover each individual's aggregated influence. With your evaluation chart now complete, you're able to move forward in selecting the individual with the most significant influence to participate in your program.
If you think I've left out an important characteristic above, feel free to leave a comment below.
Rebecca Weeks Watson is director of business development at Real Girls Media.
On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.
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