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Influence is a power that can affect, persuade and cause changes to someone or something. But, to attain this power to get intended output isn’t easy, especially when it deals with people. In order to influence people, we need to discover what is already influencing them. What makes them tick? What do they care about? What are they listening? And, Whom are they listening?

Recently  I was working on a formula for deriving most influential users on social media. This formula was intended to work across sources [Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, Identi.ca, Digg, Reddit, etc]. The challenge was not to find people who are influencing others but to find how much influence they have. This was little tough when we had to measure it across sources of various nature. Nevertheless, the formula was constructed and we used it at ContextMine. Once this feature was added to the application, I tried to test it. The first thing I did was to find out who is the most influential user for keyword “Social Media”. I was amazed to see the output. It was showing Pete Cashmore and TechCrunch. You can get the list of most influential users for your own keyword here. 

Moving further, I tried to research little more on this subject. I came across Twitalyzer which publishes The Most Influential People in Twitter. There are so many other reports on Influence of people in different aspects of life. There is an article on businessweek about The 25 Most Influential People on Web.

 
Few questions which may drag attention on this entire discussion are: Do we really need to know who are influential? Does that really impacts my business? I would say – No, this is not required but Yes, it does have impact. We must have this information and how to use it, should be our call.

There is an another thought. Jonah Peretti, who the New York Times called the "viral marketing hotdog”, says, Influence is overrated. He further explains –

We all love the idea of “influentials”—those hyper-connected, ultra-respected thought leaders that can make your product reach the tipping point. But have you ever actually met an influential that can repeatedly and consistently make a product go viral? Probably not, because the latest science and real world experimentation shows that “influentials” don’t really exist, that viral growth is partly random, and that riding a wave is much easier than creating it.

If we consider this thought – nothing is constantly influential. It changes. It acts randomly. The viral effect can be an outcome of a trivial incident or a trigger. But, if we can measure the influence – can’t we use it? Reason may be different. It may be random. But, can we deny the importance of this information? Probably not. Though, how to use this measurement may be a matter of personal / organizational thought process.

Looking for your views.

To create something new, to create something unique, requires passion. Passion, which can drive us to build remarkable things. Product Development is one of such passionate activities. It requires 100% of your effort, 100% of your zeal, and 100% of your passion. But sometimes when we are passionate we forget to realize the importance of a STOP. We keep on working, improving and adding new things. Our entire focus remains on the product which we start treating like our baby. We don’t like to see a single defect in that product. We don’t like to get a single flow in it. This, in result, increases the complexity. Completion becomes tough. We strive for perfection and that creates a never ending journey.

On a similar note, Getting Real talks about the importance of Done.

Decisions are temporary so make the call and move on

Done. Start to think of it as a magical word. When you get to done it means something’s been accomplished. A decision has been made and you can move on. Done means you’re building momentum.

But wait, what if you screw up and make the wrong call? It’s ok. This isn’t brain surgery, it’s a web app. As we keep saying, you’ll likely have to revisit features and ideas multiple times during the process anyway. No matter how much you plan you’re likely to get half wrong anyway. So don’t do the “paralyis through analysis” thing. That only slows progress and saps morale.

Doing it correctly at first go is important, but strive to make it perfect, adds extra burden. The importance question is – do we really need to make it perfect? Can we ever achieve zero defect stage in our product development life cycle? If not – then why to prolong our normal flow to consummate that extra piece of quality?

When things are looking like a never-ending-process, we need to think. We need to revisit our plan and see whether it is really required to continue? Or, we can consider a logical end and move on. Sometimes, theoretically or rather say emotionally it doesn’t look like a good solution but it actually works. STOP at a logical end and START working on other modules always helps in a long run.

Product Development is a journey which requires STOP n START multiple times. We just need to understand when is the time to call them.