The power of influencers
Influencers are important. They’re the people who sit at the heart of online communities. They help you to manage and run the community, they act as strong advocates for your brand and they amplify word of mouth.
For many, influencers are the most important people to reach online. The assumption is that they are the ones that will talk about your brand most and spread the word. At FreshNetworks, we agree that influencers are important, they will help to further your brand image. However, unlike many people we think that somebody isn’t inherently an influencer. Different people can be influencers for different brands.
So attracting influencers is important. In fact attracting potential influencers is important. The set of slides below introduces how you might do this.
Some more reading
- The Art of Conversation – It’s About Listening Not Marketing
- Online Reputation Monitoring Survey for BtoB marketers
- Help Define Community Building online
- Forrester on Social Loyalty
- Learn the art of WOM from the master
Hayden:
Matt
I agree entirely with you that influence is different depending upon the brand. However, I think that there are also other variables of influence we may need to look at, these could be:
1. Different specific products or services (not the overall brand)
2. Differing sentiment (positive or negative)
3. Differing levels of impact to create the same influence (I guess its something like a ’stickiness or coefficient of influence)
Food for thought I guess… take a look at these topics and see if they cast any light:
http://press20.blogspot.com/search/label/influence
Influence is defined by Nielson’ as “An entity—consumer or otherwise—with disproportionate impact on key audience segments”
9 July 2008, 5:02 pmMatt Rhodes:
Hayden,
Thanks for you comments and I agree with you. I was probably over-simplifying above when I suggested just brand is the factor that makes some people influencers in different situations.
I actually think things are a lot more complicated than that – it depends on how you feel, recent experiences, the role the brand plays in your life at any particular time. All of these things (and more) make you more susceptible to being an influencer.
Perhaps the best distinction and the definitions that need most work are between those things that make you more susceptible to be an influencer, and then those things that amplify the magnitude of somebody’s influence. So in a certain circumstance I might be perfectly suited to being an influencer but in reality not be that influential for some reason.
It’s something worth thinking about. I’ll blog some of my thoughts when I’ve sorted them out in my mind.
Matt
9 July 2008, 9:17 pmHayden:
Yes, I agree with you. Having read ‘The Tipping Point’ book and then other psychology works recently, I believe that a person’s susceptibility to being influenced is incredibly difficult to understand and map (however we can still use models for macro-level analysis)
Happy to discuss further though
10 July 2008, 9:22 amHayden
http://press20.blogspot.com