Why I Stopped Distinguishing Social Media Influence
Being the voice of a company has a strange effect on your approach to social media. All of a sudden, you’re speaking as a greater entity, and you’re probably sharing that voice with a couple of people. You’re thinking about how to best represent the company.
In those moments when you are inundated with messages, it’s easy to say, “I’m only going to reply to those who are influential.”
Determining influence requires a certain level of research — a click to the profile or a browsing of the LinkedIn. Follower/following ratio, most recent post, and bio description are all indicators.
There are businesses that make influence the core feature of their product. A Klout Score ranks someone’s social power out of 100. It is integrated into many software platforms. Lithium allows users to set up alerts when their brand is mentioned by someone of a certain Klout Score. SproutSocial incorporates it into conversation history with a user. I’ve happily used some of these tools.
Then I started to consider the people behind the profiles. Some of them are awfully good at growth marketing. Others are just starting out. Maybe they bought followers. Or their following could be small and mighty. Each of these people needs the same help.
In the amount of time it would take me to determine if somebody is influential, I could simply favorite their note or reply to them.
On a personal level, the brands I admire the most are the ones who communicated with me via social media when I reached out. It added a level of respect and trust, and over time, I became an unofficial ambassador for many of those companies. In the years that followed, my level of influence grew. I became a stronger voice than I was when they initially supported me.
“Talk to someone about themselves and they’ll listen for hours.” — Dale Carnegie
At Drift, I don’t want to be the brand that’s stingy about interaction. I aim to build a company everybody raves about. If we’re helping others improve their relationship marketing, we need to set the example.
This is my promise: If you tweet at or about Drift, I’ll do my best to favorite or reply to you. I’ll answer your inquiry equally. You’ve taken an interest in us, so it’s only fair that we take an interest in you.
Disclaimer: this is all true unless you’re a troll roaming the Internet with the intent to annoy. Trolls, you’ll just get the cold shoulder.
Related readings:
- 7 Truths of Entrepreneurship: “Get Sh*t Done”
- This is Your Life on Trello
- The Books Every Startup CEO Should Read
PS: I recommend checking out the Drift Daily so you can know who’s visiting your site.
