Now, we've taken a look at one of these first tools, it's BuzzSumo. Here's your assignment. Instead of a quiz, this time, what I want you to do is use BuzzSumo. Susan has been kind enough to make sure that all of you have free access to this tool for the next two weeks, and I want you to use it to try to identify five key; they could be journalists, they could be bloggers, they can be influencers, in any topic area of your choice. You pick it. It would really be useful if the topic that you'd pick as the one that you plan to use in your project at the end of this course. So be thinking about, where do I want to find influencers? It could be for your current company, it could be for your next employer, it could be for the nonprofit that you've decided to do some good things for? You pick it. Then, here's what I need you to do. I need you to write a paragraph on each one of those key influencers. So that you could describe them to someone else that hasn't used this tool so that they can evaluate. "Oh, those are the people you pick, those are the ones who were influential in this conversation. Oh, that's interesting." Enhance what you're going to do with that document. You're going to share it with your peers here, and who are also taking the course, and there are three of them are going to take a look at what you've written and send you back their evaluations, and you're going to get three from your colleagues, your peers, and you're going to send it back with your comments. Here's what I want you to look for; does the list of five influencers feel right? Does it look right? Does it appear that these would really get this campaign rolling? If not, why? By the way, is there some variety in this list? Or do they all look like they were cut from the same cloth? In other words, is this a real, real narrow niche? With only experts who all seem to have the same background? Or have you discovered some segments of influence in this process that might indicate that this is a little broader niche and there are different kinds of groups that you might need to talk to in different kinds of ways? That's how you will evaluate the list, so that's how your list will be evaluated by your peers. Frankly, that's going to become a really useful document. Now, this isn't going to be graded, but yes, this is a really, really key step on your pathway towards learning how to identify the right influencers for your project. Okay. Now, we're into Lesson Two of this module that is focused on finding the right influencers, and we're going to take a look at a different tool this time. This is a tool that I've been using for a number of years, it's not a free tool and we weren't able to arrange to get you a free access to use it. So, I'm sorry, this is not one where you're going to be able to play with it to make up your own mind, but I'm going to show you some things that I've done with it, that will give you a sense of; why it's a pretty interesting tool? I'm going to ask you to focus on. Yes, tools have features, they have benefits. There's some how-to information. Yes, here's the key concept I want you to focus on; at the end of this lesson, I'm going to ask you to diagram trackers, methodology for scoring a person's influence in a given topic area. Why? Because that methodology, whether you use this tool or you use some other tool, whether you use no tools at all and you go with your gut intuition has some really key concepts built into it. We're going to ask you to create a PowerPoint slide with a diagram on it or if not a PowerPoint slide then you can use Google Slides. But the point is, is at the end of this module you're going to be asked to create a diagram that illustrates the key components of this concept. Okay? Are you with me?
