In an era of intense digital disruption and increasing mistrust of traditional channels of communication, smart C-Suite executives are leveraging social media to communicate and build trust with customers, employees and stakeholders.
Measuring the True Influence of Tech CEOs on Social Media
Introducing the BRANDfog True Influence (BTI) Score and Quadrant
1
Introduction
Many executive leaders are using digital platforms to build thought leadership and establish themselves and their companies as sources of industry insights and forward-looking trends. However, even though more leaders are leveraging social media, the tools for evaluating the effectiveness of that engagement have not kept up with the times.
2
Who Should Read this Paper
C-suite leaders, executives and communications professionals who wish to use social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn as a leadership tool to have an impact on the conversations occurring among the thought leaders in their industry.
3
Defining the Problem
Executives use social media for a variety of purposes, but industry thought leaders have specific uses that go beyond the standard marketing and communications processes.
Business leaders must focus on enhancing the company’s reputation, building strong and trusting relationships with brand stakeholders, and proposing innovative ideas industry-wide.
Executives need to know how well their efforts are paying off, and how social media leadership engagement is strengthening their influence within the industry. Specifically, they need to know:
- Am I receiving all the latest, most relevant ideas generated in areas of interest?
- Are my own ideas being effectively transmitted to relevant people?
- Am I building a strong and relevant audience network to support my business?
4
The BRANDfog True Influence Score
The BRANDfog True Influence Score (BTI) measures an individual’s influence on social media within a specific, relevant community. Our white paper focuses on the online influence of the top 20 U.S. technology CEOs based on rank in the Fortune 1000 who are on Twitter.
Our approach to measuring social influence is to custom-define a client’s relevant community, model it as a follower network, and then use social network analysis methods to understand the structure of the network and assess a client’s prominence within the network.
Our focus on a well-defined community allows for a more detailed, precise evaluation than one might obtain from a generalized social influence score. By offering a transparent methodology for the BTI, we hope to encourage more open and precise conversations about social media influence.
We use the BRANDfog BTI Score to:
- Assess clients’ prominence in relevant online communities
5
The BRANDfog True Influence Quadrant
The BRANDfog BTI Quadrant measures the online influence of industry CEOs. This BTI Quadrant depicts the top 20 Fortune 1000 technology CEOs who are on Twitter, and maps their influence among industry press and industry analysts. This visual representation of how influential the CEOs are within key communities of interest provides robust, actionable insights.
The BRANDfog BTI Score can serve as an overall barometer of social engagement within a community.
Each of the four sections of the BRANDfog BTI Quadrant also represents a different stage of engagement on social media. The path for any executive from first engagement to becoming a true influencer may vary, but at any moment their social profile tends to fall into one of the four categories that we have identified.
6
Conclusion
Many C-Suite executives are leveraging social media strategically to develop real-world influence and foster industry dialogue, however measuring the success of those efforts is challenging.
‘Influence’ is only meaningful if you have a well-defined audience. By determining the relevant community and using transparent metrics, executives can effectively measure their level of industry influence for actionable insights.
We built the BRANDfog BTI Score and Quadrant to be totally transparent. The BRANDfog BTI Score and Quadrant are models that identify and measure current patterns of influence, which can then inform a smart strategy to grow leaders’ influence among the stakeholders that matter.
If you would like more information on the BTI Quadrant for your industry, please contact us at Carly@BRANDfog.com.