Measuring influence online is tough. People say that it can’t solely be a followers/friends/fans/readers game, can’t be measured by interaction alone and shouldn’t be left to amateurs.
Good thing Fast Company came along. Instead of relying on a number of readily available, very transparent statistics like Klout, Fast Company is reinventing the process. In it, they claim to be able to measure influence by how many people you can get to click on your unique URL.
Fuck that. I really hope they’re kidding. Seeing as how many, many reports agree that the lowest-educated internet users account for a disproportionately high number of click throughs (something like 17% and 85%, respectively), the only damn thing that Fast Company is proving here is that to be influential, you need to have a bunch of stupid people following you.
Influence should be based on how likely a person is to get others to do something useful. Anything less than that is simply persuasion, manipulation or even a Ponzi scheme. But even good services like Klout only really measure one thing: your digital influence. Guys like Evo Terra and Derek Neighbors both have lower Klout scores than I do, but how many people show up when Evo speaks, hosts a party or plans an #evfn? Lots. Same with Derek and his little Gangplank venture.
Online influence doesn’t mean shit unless it extends into real action. Getting someone else to click on something, unless that makes you money directly, matters even less.
Go back to whatever it is you do, Fast Company. Stop annoying us with half-ass projects that don’t do a damn thing.
