PRNewser Poll: Do Clickthroughs Determine Influence?

Last week, we asked whether social media will overtake traditional media as a primary PR tool.  The numbers are in, and nearly 58 percent of respondents were on the fence, saying “maybe” this will happen.

As we noted in that post, Art Stevens, managing partner at StevensGouldPincus, is convinced this will happen in the next two years. About 19 percent of poll takers  agreed, with slightly more than 5 percent saying it has already happened.

Besides the PRNewser poll, there has been considerable buzz around a couple of items focused on social media popularity versus influence. Vocus partnered with Brian Solis for a study about what determines influence and whether there’s a difference between influence and popularity. Mashable also posted a story on the subject, taking the Kim Kardashian angle.

The story asserts that while Kardashian doesn’t have the Twitter following of, say, Lady Gaga, she has influence. The reality TV star he has a ton of traffic on her website, and a lot of that traffic is directed to her site via Twitter. “…[W]e think the ability to direct Web traffic is a pretty big part of influence,” the article reads.

So this week’s PRNewser Poll question is: “Do clickthroughs determine influence?”

Cast your vote by next Monday. And feel free to continue the popularity versus influence conversation in the comments.

Do clickthroughs determine influence?online surveys

[Image via Kim Kardashian official website.]

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.