How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | 页面 41

and then, because of this change, did an action occur or was a
behavior changed. Stated another way, the opinion change is an
intermediate or micro outcome and the desired action is a final
or macro outcome. Depending on the type of purchase decision
there may be a time lag between the micro and macro outcomes
that make it difficult to connect the dots. In his book The
Business of Influence, Philip Sheldrake presents a concept
called the “Maturity of Influence Approach”. Basically it melds
two important concepts to use when thinking about influence
measurement – focus on the influence, not the influencer (Philip
refers to this as “influence-centric), and to start at the macro
outcome/action and trace the path of influence back to the
source(s) of influence. One simple example of this in a B2B
context would be to ask the prospect at the time they are ready
to make a purchase, “what sources of information or opinion
were most valuable to you in making your decision to buy our
product?” A similar question or two can be asked using a popup survey in an ecommerce situation.
Influence and Engagement Confusion
A primary source of influence confusion is failing to distinguish
between a simple act of engagement and the process of being
influenced. If someone in my Twitter stream sends out a tweet
and I retweet it, have they influenced me to retweet or have I
simply engaged with that individual’s content? Many who have
written about social media influence have suggested that in
RTing the tweet, I have been influenced to do so. I do not
believe that is the case. I have engaged with the content, but
have there been any true changes in my attitudes, opinions,
beliefs or behavior? Again, the operative word here is change.
Does the act of RTing constitute a behavioral change? Probably
not. Engagement – yes, influence - no.
Engagement is a necessary pre-condition to Influence. (This
social media measurement model addresses the distinction)
Without engagement you don’t have the opportunity to

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