# Influence

Influence determines how much **engagement** a persona gets on their social media posts.

| Benefit             | Feature                                                                                                |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Saves time          | Create ranges for the engagement on social media posts                                                 |
| Greater consistency | Automatically apply numbers for likes, shares, and comments on historic posts within predefined ranges |

## Defining influence

There are several indicators of influence - the **ratio of followers to following** is one but a better one is whether the persona's content actually gets traction & engagement. This is indicated by the **number of likes, shares and comments** on a post.

When creating your persona, you can define their influence by creating ranges for the engagement they'll typically get on a MicroBlog (X) or GoSocial (Facebook) post.

<figure><img src="https://3476309720-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FsNKxYbIPgfYmCR9EJgAu%2Fuploads%2FQ7ZFd2uVN34U9fhS6WCz%2Finfluence.png?alt=media&#x26;token=fef000ec-dcfb-4d20-acc6-4692ac7f116f" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Applying influence

In your personas' MicroBlog and GoSocial accounts, you can create **historic content** that will be pre-published at the start of the exercise.

If you click the button `Apply influence` the Editor will randomly add a number of likes, shares and comments to the posts **within the ranges you've created in the Influence panel**.

<figure><img src="https://3476309720-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FsNKxYbIPgfYmCR9EJgAu%2Fuploads%2FR8mcMlrzC8mRYurVVLVf%2Fapply%20influence.png?alt=media&#x26;token=aa6155e6-bb0c-4caf-b73e-9349f25fd441" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Apply influence **by bulk** by selecting the desired personas (this is usually best done when organising by factions) and clicking the :thumbsup: button:

<figure><img src="https://3476309720-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FsNKxYbIPgfYmCR9EJgAu%2Fuploads%2FX7JV1504fcvuidlsdjdq%2Fbulk%20influence.png?alt=media&#x26;token=f41fa8b2-d34d-4670-a204-c4c2eed75da5" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Persona influence where it's defined will then be applied to all persona historic messages.

{% hint style="warning" %}
MicroBlog influence will be applied to other channels too except GoSocial if it's been defined.
{% endhint %}