Your Twitter account has metrics. You knew that. The number of followers that a person has can be used as a measure of influence. On the other hand, that metric could be gamed by followlove, i.e. I follow you, you follow me and vice versa.
So here's another approach from Tweeterboard (thanks @jowyang for the heads up): a reputation score based on "conversations" you have with others. So now it appears that the community has found attention and influence metrics for Twitter...now all we need is one for authority.
It's the combination of all three factors that make an influencer influential (earlier thoughts on this).
Peter,
Influence can't be measured by links or followers, which are easily manipulated, as you point out, by using the "love" concept or by doing the Seth thing: turn off your comments so the only recourse are trackbacks and links. (In Seth's case, however, his influence is measured in more substantial ways through his books, engagements and brand image.)
In my mind, scoial media influence is best measured by counting readers, listeners and viewers; through brand image (perception those readers, listeners and viewers have of us); and by counting the numbers of times our messages are quoted by others.
Have a great holiday week and season!
Posted by: Lewis Green | 19 December 2007 at 03:58 PM