What Does Influence Really Mean?

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 | Blogging & WordPress, Off-Topic

If you’ve read the responses of the 25 most influential tech comm bloggers and honorable mentions to being listed, you may have noticed that I haven’t said anything about it before now—other than on Twitter the day the list was posted. One reason is that I had other post ideas and some guest posts I wanted to publish first.

Now I’ve gotten around to it.

What Influence Is

Brian Solis recently wrote about how influence has been confused with online popularity. He says:

Over the years, I’ve explored the roles of influencers in social networks and as a result, I’ve refined the definition as simply the ability to cause measurable actions and outcomes. Intentional influence then assumes that certain actions are therefore definable and as a result, desired activity and results are now designed into strategies. The execution of these plans is then dependent on the reach and conviction of the influential voices to which they’re aligned.

One of the classes in my communication minor in college focused on persuasion and social influence. (Yes, majoring in English and technical writing and minoring in communication may be redundant. But the minor gave me a perspective on how people communicate in general, not just how to communicate technical concepts to people.) In this period of the ubiquity of social media, thinking about social influence is highly relevant.

Our textbook was Persuasion, Social Influence, and Compliance Gaining, of which our professor was a coauthor. The book is based partly on the premise that the three named concepts are closely related or synonymous and that they’re aimed at changing people’s thoughts, attitudes, or behaviors.

I believe influence is different than a social circle or even than attraction. Someone may be in my circle without being influenced by me. People may be drawn to my blog through a link on Twitter and never be influenced by what they read. I agree with my college professor’s view of influence: it’s bringing about change in someone else.

How Do You Measure Influence?

Many of the 25 and the honorable mentions have posted about what it meant to them to be included on this list. After seeing those responses, I read Larry Kunz’s perspective, that of someone who (I believe) should have been included and wasn’t. The fact that he and his cohort, Julio Vazquez, were excluded turned out to be due to a computational technicality. I was already thinking about the meaning of influence in this context, but Larry’s analysis of the situation really spurred my thoughts onward.

The people on this list are hard to compare when you’re talking about influence as a general concept. I’d say many of the people in the list of 25 have different kinds of influence. RJ Jacquez may have a wide reach and help people understand how to use RoboHelp. Does that mean he’s influential? In my opinion, he’s a much different kind of blogger than Tom Johnson, for whom blogging is done entirely in spare time. I’ve been much more influenced through my association with Tom than I probably ever will be by RJ. But that has been due to associating with him in person rather than entirely through his blog. Influence is hard to measure.

This post probably sounds like I’m putting down the “influential blogger” exercise and MindTouch’s efforts. This isn’t my intention. I am pleased to have received some recognition and be named as someone that can help other people in my field. I think the list is a way to help technical communicators build their networks with each other and give newbies a place to start looking for ways to improve in the profession.

At the same time, I think perhaps the list was misnamed. Maybe it would be more accurately called “The 25 Most Visible Tech Comm Bloggers” or “The 25 Tech Comm Bloggers with the Biggest Audience.”

Any Influence Here?

I don’t entirely agree with Solis’s definition of online influence. Influence isn’t always measurable. I don’t have definable actions I would like people to take as a result of reading my blog or following me on Twitter. My aim is pretty vague. My hope is that by reading my blog, you think about tech comm in ways you haven’t before and even can make some improvements as I do through what I learn in my day-to-day work. My aim for Twitter followers is even more ill-defined: Converse about tech comm, get a link to something useful, have a chuckle.

What do you think? Has reading this blog changed your perspective or given you something concrete to use in your tech comm work? Have your thoughts or behavior changed somehow? I’m wondering not to boost my sense of self-importance, but to see if the blog is helpful to anyone besides me. I’d like to know if there are ways to improve how helpful this blog is. That’s my goal, whether or not you’d look at it as influence.

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12 Comments to 'What Does Influence Really Mean?'

Scott
August 17, 2010

Influence is kind of a funny thing, and while it can be measured in some ways/shapes/forms it’s hard (if not impossible) to measure the deeper impact of that influence. And it’s that deeper impact that I’m interested in.

If I’ve been able to annoy someone or get them to think or persuade them to try something new then I believe I’ve been influential. It doesn’t have to be thousands or hundreds or even fives of people. It could be just one or two.

And, yes, you’ve been an influence on me. In a good way!

Larry Kunz
August 17, 2010

Thanks for the mention and the link, Ben. I think we both agree that some aspects of influence are intangible and difficult (maybe impossible) to measure.

You raise an intriguing question: Can you be influential when you don’t set out to be influential? I think you can. Your blog is proof. I can think of two ways in which you’ve influenced me:

When you work your way through a problem, you describe it honestly and frankly. I always learn from your stories of how you found solutions.
You have keen insight into the usability-testing process. I even included one of your posts (with permission) in the class materials for my TechComm certificate course.

Julio Vazquez
August 17, 2010

Hi Ben,

I know that when I read your blog I’m always given something to consider and that I will come away with something, even if the blog doesn’t change anything I do. There are times that what you’ve written may affect something I’ve considered by either modifying my original thought or channeling my thoughts in a direction they haven’t gone before. Because there is some affect, you have had some influence and, by definition, have been influential to me (at least sometimes).

Am I influential? Probably not as much as Larry, but I do try to give folks things to think about and hopefully they will take at least look at a path I point down and let me know if there be dragons.

One final nit-pick. I do appreciate the mention but I am picky about the spelling of my name. After all, my dad gave it to me.

Ben Reply:
August 17th, 2010 at 9:11 am

Sorry about that, Julio. I like having my name spelled correctly too. I’ve fixed it.

Julio Vazquez
August 17, 2010

Thanks, Ben. Appreciate the correction. Hope I didn’t ruffle feathers. (Griffins hurt when they bite. )

Sarah O'Keefe
August 17, 2010

The Mindtouch list measured social media visibility. In addition to Larry and Julio, the fact that JoAnn Hackos and Ann Rockley didn’t make the list made it obvious that this list wasn’t about ACTUAL tech comm influence.

That said, I appreciate the fact that the guys at Mindtouch a) put together the list and b) explained their methodology. (And c) several of us here landed on it!)

Peter Grainge
August 21, 2010

I agree the list name is not accurate and it is more about visibility. The people listed work hard for the community and deserve recognition for that but with the right badge. That badge however would need to be measured in a different way.

Surely measuring influence would need a survey as what influence some will not influence others.

Ben
August 21, 2010

Thanks for the comments, everyone (sorry about taking so long to respond). It would be interesting to see another influential list with some different criteria. But it may be a big project that would need to clearly define influence at the outset.

Larry, you mentioned blogging about working through problems. I’ve leaned more that way here because I haven’t been in the field long enough to come across as an expert. It feels presumptuous of me to try writing every post as an article that tells the best or only way to do something. That, and I think people like to know the pitfalls as well as the best practices.

Gil Vinokoor
September 20, 2010

Ben,

As always, a thought-provoking post.

Allow me to rank three types of “influential tech comm bloggers”, in increasing level of influence, if I may:

1) They interest me enough that I want to follow them (subscribe to their blogs, follow on Twitter, etc) and know what they are thinking about and discussing. I see them as “silent colleagues”.

2) They are so interesting to follow that I want to engage and communicate with them (posting comments on their blog, tweeting with them, etc), exchanging ideas and concerns. I see them as “trusted colleagues”.

3) They are so engaging and insightful that I will turn to them as a primary source for advice (either by following their blog, direct contact, etc) when I wonder about how I can do something better or smarter as a professional technical communicator. I see them as “wise mentors”.

Your thoughts?

Ben Reply:
September 22nd, 2010 at 6:32 pm

Thanks for those categories, Gil. They add some depth to the concept of how influential and engaging people can be online. I’d say most of the people I follow online fall into the first category, a few into the second; and then I happen to work with a couple of those in the list of 25, who then would go into category 3 because I know them better and take advantage of the physical proximity to learn from them. I agree that with the abilities Web technologies give us, though, we can have mentors we haven’t met physically (I think Julio agreed, but I’m not sure. . . .)

Julio Vazquez
September 20, 2010

Gil,

I really like your categories. I think that, subconciously, I probably do much the same thing. There are those whom I actively follow and others who I follow without being as active. I also found it very interesting that you have a group you describe as mentors as most folks think that mentors have to be local. I’ve never even considered a “virtual” mentor.

Julio Vazquez
September 23, 2010

Yes, Ben. I do agree.

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