Jessica Burnette-Lemon is Senior Editor of Communication World, the IABC's member magazine. I had the pleasure of talking with Jessica on the topical and some might say controversial topic of influence (in the context of marketing and PR of course).
The resultant article appears in the current issue of the magazine, but because it's a publication for members' eyes only, I can't add a link here.
Fortunately, Jessica has given me permission to reproduce the article right here, "A Measure Of Influence" (PDF). I hope you find it interesting.
The article pulls out one quote up front. At the risk of stating the obvious:
The best way to exert useful influence remains to deliver great products and services so that your customers evangelize your brand to friends and family, and to be a well-run organization so that your employees and partners evangelize working with you.