The following is an excerpt from Chapter 6 of the PR Measurement Guidebook, Vol. 5.

Influencer Identification Checklists

If you don’t have access to a vendor tool to measure influence, this checklist can help you determine if a blog is influential.

  • Monthly unique visitors: How does this audience size compare to similar blogs?

  • Quantity of comments: Are many people engaged in the conversation?

  • Quality of comments: Are the comments ontopic and relevant to your business?

  • Recommendations: Are people making recommendations in addition to commenting on this blog?

  • Incoming content links: How many other sites link to it?—e.g., what is the Technorati Authority Ranking?

  • Name recognition: Is it tied to a recognized business, organization or media outlet?

  • News source: Is it often mentioned on other blogs as an original news source? Is it named in traditional media as an original news source?

  • Track record: When was it created? How many blog posts are there?

Here is a Twitalyzer checklist to determine if a Twitter account is influential:

  • Followers: How many followers does a Twitter account have?

  • Unique references: How many times is the account cited with @replies?

  • Retweets: How often is the account uniquely retweeted?

  • Retweeting: How often is the account uniquely retweeting other accounts?

  • Tweets: How often is the account updated?

—Margot Sinclair Savell