This post about Twitter and influence by Ed Stetzer started out as a quick read. It turned into one of those posts you’re still pondering days later.

There’s been a buzz about social media influence and tracking for awhile, I just hadn’t spent much time looking into it. Curiosity again got the best of me.

It’s probably not news to anyone that measuring success of social media efforts has become big business. I made a number of other discoveries. Three are listed here:

1) There are still many questions without definitive answers. 2) There’s a battle of currencies taking place. 3) There’s a fatal distraction.

The last one troubled me. Maybe it hit too close too home.

Discovery #1: There are still many questions without definitive answers.

Is Twitter a broadcast medium or a social network? What makes an online influencer? What are the most important metrics?

That’s just a tiny, tiny fraction of the questions still being explored and studied, but a slew of companies and analysts are diligently searching for all the answers. I’ve listed three endeavors to that end, if you would like to go deeper into the subject.

1. A report done by Vocus and FutureWorks principal Brian Solis titled, “Influencer Grudge Match: Lady Gaga versus Bono.” It surveyed 739 marketing and communications professionals who work with influencers to gauge their perceptions of what makes an influencer.

2. A contest created by the magazine Fast Company called,“The Influence Project.” Their stated purpose was to find the Most Influential Person Online. Critics came down hard on the game, one calling it “the most ingenious link bait pyramid scheme to date.”

3. My personal favorite, a series of articles by Dr. Michael Wu, an analytics scientist writing for the Lithosphere community. This collection of Dr. Wu’s work is taken from his extensive research on influencers and social network analysis.

Discovery #2: There’s a battle of currencies taking place.

Influence is being promoted as the new currency on the social web. Not conceptually. For real. Always open to new thinking, I was intrigued by the thought, at first.

Rob Dickens says in this article that our Über-Profile–the ability to track and leverage all our personal influence in the social web–is beginning to change the economy. The prediction is made that our online influence will become actual currency.

It didn’t come as a surprise to find a counterpoint. In this post, Michelle Tripp explains why the new fascination with manipulating influence and crunching our value into numbers is unhealthy. A case is made here for retaining ideas as the new currency.

No one really knows how the battle over currencies on the social web is going to turn out. That brings to mind the chatter about another currency war…among countries…and the search for global economic cooperation to avoid it. Could all these currency issues converge at some point in the future, into a single global solution?

I digress. That’s way, way above my pay grade and leads to…

Discovery #3: There’s a fatal distraction.

I came across some extreme statements about the need to pursue online status to be in the game that left me feeling empty and cold. They could have come from the script of the movie Wall Street. Replace “the social web” with “wall street” in the following statements and you’ll see what I mean.

• The social web is a universe of haves and have nots. • Without influence you’re irrelevant on the social web. • Without influence, having a presence on the social web is little more than an exercise in frivolity. • Use any means to influence as many people as you can to be successful on the social web. • Wake up, will ya, pal? If you’re not inside, you’re outside, okay? (Gordon Gekko, Wall Street)

Influence is not the problem on the social web. God created influence. The life and influence of Jesus Christ, the perfect leader, changed the world. And Jesus said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (John 13:15)

It’s the craving of influence, or money, that can spread its tentacles like a cancer through our lives online. That is the root of all kinds of evil for which some will stray from the faith. (A paraphrase of 1 Timothy 6:10)

Lighthouses don’t fire cannons to call attention to their shining – they just shine.     D.L. Moody-

We could spend the rest of our days trying to create social currency on the web. And there would always be that whisper, “Just a little more.” If you’re establishing an online presence, you may have already heard it. I have. Most recently while creating a Klout score for this project.

Falling prey to that insatiable distraction for always wanting more social currency would be a fatal error. One that will rob us of God’s peace and blessings.

I pray we will resist the temptation to crave influence for ourselves on the web. It’s not about us. We should build our online platforms on a solid foundation, aim for the stars in our strategies, rejoice in the the level of reach God brings, and then influence as many as we can for Christ.

Question: What other kinds of issues can you envision if influence becomes actual currency?