The Fast Company Influence Project Squanders Their Influence

Fast Company created their Influencer Project supposedly to show who has influence in the social web, or in particular, on Twitter and Facebook. People are being asked to send a unique link to their friends and followers to see how many people will click on it.  Those who can get their link clicked on the most will be featured on a Fast Company magazine cover.

This is a great example of leveraging the psychology of humans needing connection and validation.  Or in layman’s terms, it is a brilliant popularity contest, but it doesn’t prove anything about influence.

The thing with influence, like the thing with trust, is that it cannot be accurately assessed in a blanket statement.  If you can influence someone to see a movie it does not correlate with your ability to influence them to buy a certain brand of wine.  I may trust you to be punctual to a meeting, but that does not mean I trust you to watch my children or to hold on to my wallet without taking the money out of it.

Read the full article here