Links from the show:

The tweet that sparked the conversation: Contemplating influence vs popularity after speaking with Marshall Kirkpatrick at the Sprinklr event yesterday. They can be almost entirely different things. I am not popular as such but people I do connect with, I influence (and vise versa). All is right in my world ❤️ -Rachel Happe
Screenshot from Sprinklr - the Top 10 DevRel influencers that Marshall shared during the recording
Sprinklr visualization that shows how the Top 10 DevRel influencers were determined, using in-group follow relationships on Twitter, with the accounts analyzed through friend of a friend indexing initiated by a training set of 5 accounts: DevRelIO, Brandon West, Tomomi Imura, Devrel.net, and Adam Duvander.
Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives

Key Quotes:
_An influencer is someone who has won the respect, interest, and attention of other subject matter experts in a particular field or context. [At Sprinklr], we measure that through analysis of the Twitter follow relationship through a specific model called Social Graph Analysis. _-Marshall Kirkpatrick

[If] you’re just looking at follower counts, then it turns into “Oh! They must be an influencer! They have 110,000 followers.” And… maybe! but if it’s not consolidated into one [topic] space and half of them are bots, what’s it going to do for you? -Rachel Happe

To be a deep influencer, you have to engage in dialogue with people. You have to be able to challenge them effectively, which means you also have to be supportive… meaning, if they don’t know that you’re supportive and you challenge them, then you’re just an asshole and you’re not going to change their opinion about anything. That requires a relationship and you have to be open yourself to being changed. You can’t approach it with “I’m going to proclaim my expertise to the world and they are going to sit back and listen!” Relationships are influence. -Rachel Happe

_In order to be an influencer, you have to be willing to be influenced. You have to have the capability and flexibility to say “Yes, I’m going to promote this product or work for this company, or work with this project…” but at the same time you have to be open to the idea that things might not be perfect in the world. _-PJ Hagerty

Words are hard. Saying “In my experience…” or “In my expertise, that doesn’t look right”, which is different than saying “That’s wrong.” -Rachel Happe

_It’s the gentle way to continue a conversation! The first is saying “Lead me to your way of thinking… help me understand” whereas “You’re wrong” ends the conversation. _-PJ Hagerty

The main difference I’ve seen between people who have a lot of followers and people who are influencers is that influencers are able to understand the power that their platform has and use that to engage people, to encourage conversations, to encourage diversity, to encourage greater thinking about issues. -Mary Thengvall

_A big part of the value of these thought leaders and influencers that we haven’t touched on is not so much in the way they can move the outside world and the web that we’re all a part of… but there’s a huge source of value [for businesses] that comes from connecting with these thought leaders and influencers that can be derived from learning from them. _-Marshall Kirkpatrick

_I would suggest that there’s an opportunity there (when there’s a “flash” of influence that catapults someone onto a platform with many Twitter followers) to build a relationship. There may be a signal-to-noise ratio that you need to be cautious of – perhaps only 1/10 of those people will be able to sustain the platform – but early access and development of a relationship, especially with someone that you like, who winds up growing into a position of thought leadership, means more time spent around their work and a more impactful relationship. _-Marshall Kirkpatrick

In order to draw people to a community you need to figure out who influences them. If their top influencers aren’t also in the community, those individuals aren’t going to be aware of your new community, let alone interested in joining. -Rachel Happe

Checkouts:
Marshall

Sprinklr blog
5 Big Lessons in Community Management Based on a Decade of Experience by Rachel Happe

Rachel

Good Black News Twitter account
Effin Birds Twitter account
State of Community Mgmt from Community Round Table - coming soon! In the meantime, check out the 2018 report.

PJ

This Land from Gary Clark Jr
Wave App for billing, invoicing and expense tracking - great alternative to Quickbooks
DevOps Days Buffalo, Sept 26-27

Mary

How to Not Always be Working by Marlee Grace - an interactive book that helps set priorities, reclaim work/life balance, and prevent burnout
The Adventure Zone podcast - for D&D fans… and those who enjoy good storytelling

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Special Guests: Marshall Kirkpatrick and Rachel Happe.

S6 EP15: Stiff Neck Tales From The Tour