Growth in any endeavor can only come from measuring your progress. In this module, you’ll learn to measure your monetary and time investments where your influence marketing efforts are concerned. This allows you to invest the bulk of your time and money on those areas where your return on investment helps you meet your goals.

Measure the Right Thing

What is it that you truly want from your influence marketing? What is the best-case business scenario for 6 months, 1 year, and 5 years down the road? What exactly is it that you are trying to accomplish by becoming an industry influencer? You should take sufficient time to answer these questions.

Otherwise, you may find yourself wasting time measuring marketing returns and metrics which have little to no impact on your business. You may long for the respect, admiration, and power that comes with being an influential force in your market. On the other hand, maximum profitability may be your goal.

In either case, you need to know what your goals are so you can measure the relevant marketing data.

By putting measurable performance trackers in place in your business, you will discover if your sales and profits improve along with your industry influence. Whether prestige or profits are your goal as an influence marketer, you should be measuring the following social metrics and using the following tracking tools and practices.

• Visitor/ Customer Loyalty

Once someone buys what you are offering, do they return to make more purchases? If a significant portion of your sales are generated by previous purchasers, this speaks well to your influence in your market. You can also judge your level of market influence by discovering how many of your sales come from word-of-mouth referrals.

• Your Expert Status

Being influential in most cases means being an expert in your field. Ask for feedback from your customers and other market influencers to determine if you are viewed as having significant knowledge and industry expertise. Consistently review who is reaching out to you for help.

Record the occasions where you are invited to important marketing functions, conferences, and seminars. If someone enters your sales funnel and doesn’t end up buying from you, ask them why they decided to put off purchasing your products and services. All of these exercises help you determine if you are viewed as an influential market expert.

• Surveys

Exit polls are given to customers right after they have made a purchase. You can also survey prospects and others in your market who have never bought anything from you. Surveying other market influencers can reveal important industry best practices.

Surveys are a powerful form of market research because everyone likes expressing their opinion. This is a very direct and inexpensive way to see if you are viewed as credible, trustworthy, and knowledgeable in your field.

• Measuring Your Social Score

Thanks to the Internet, it is possible to arrive at a specific number which indicates your “social score.” There are different applications and websites which grade how you are perceived online in general, and on the most important social networking sites specifically. The following sites and apps help measure your social media influence.

• Klout – Klout generates a score from 1 to 100, which represents your measure of influence and engagement online. Just like in your school days, the higher the number, the better your score.
• PeerIndex/Brandwatch – This market influence tracker helps you assess and score your level of influence. This is done by tracking your activity, audience, and authority on social networks.
• Kred – Kred Influence Measurement records specific social media data in relation to your Twitter ID, or a hashtag you use in a tweet. This creates a dual score that represents both your Influence (the likelihood that someone will act upon your content), and your Outreach (the probability that others will share your content).
• uberVU (through Hootsuite) – HootSuite is a social media management system. Their uberVU helps you “gauge the social sentiment around your brand.” It also reveals where you are missing conversations and interactions that could expand your influence. UberVU delivers real-time results that can be broken down into multiple demographics.
• Klear – Formerly named Twtrland, Klear describes itself as “a social intelligence platform.” The company provides you with influencer marketing and competitive research tools to gauge and improve your level of influence.
• Here are some other social media monitoring tools for specific platforms.
• Twitter – TweetReach, Twitalyzer, Twazzup and Followerwonk
• Google – Google Alerts and Google+ Ripples (Part of Google+)
• Facebook – EdgeRank Checker and Facebook Insights
• Internet search engines – Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Ask, and other search engines rank web pages in order of authority and relativity regarding a specific search term. Higher rankings are generally viewed as more believable and authoritative