A literature review and potential approach to measuring influence in social media

This research-in-progress seeks to uncover a deeper understanding of how influence works online, and how we might measure influence beyond the outputs and outtakes. In this literature review, several salient themes emerge: § Influence explained via social impact and opinion leadership o Mixed results on both accounts § Influence applied by a group on its individual members o By and large, literature supports this principle o Social identification with the group leads to being influenced by its members § Influence as a consequence of position in a social network o Two researchers did the same experiment and got different results. One study finds that influence rises according to position, but influence wanes as the scale of the network increases