If there has been a key theme within the social media landscape this year, it’s been the influencer. We have moved beyond quantity – blasting out content to everywhere and anywhere – to quality, which means targeting fewer people but those who have a major impact on lots of other people.
It’s an interesting change in direction given everyone was so obsessed with the Long Tail, which is all about harnessing the power of lots of people who are not seen as influencers because they don’t have a big following. The Long Tail is out, the influencer is in.
Jeff Jarvis has an intriguing post about how influencers don’t exist, which completely goes against the grain. Shirky’s believes it’s the merit of messages that influence people rather than people who are influencers. It’s a theory that, in many ways, makes sense but it also dismisses the idea there are people who are influential in specific areas.
For example, Bill Clinton could be seen as an influencer in politics; just as Steve Jobs is a high-tech influencer, and LeBron James is a sports influencer. What these people do and talk about is highly regarded and has an impact on lots of people, regardless of the quality of their messages.
The discovery and identification of influencers has become the new Holy Grail within social media. We have moved beyond being fascinated with monitoring and analysis, which measures how much and where activity is happening. Now, we’re far more interested in who matters (aka influence).
A good illustration of this fascination with influence is Klout, which has become a leading benchmark for measuring influence. Everyone is interested in their Klout scores. It’s part vanity and part a growing recognition influence matters or, at least, a growing number of people think it matters.
The major brands – Nike, Hewlett-Packard, Starbucks – using Klout to engage with influencers is more evidence influence is a key consideration for marketers. Their decision to use Klout also suggests there are challenges in identifying influencers given the digital lanscape is so fast-moving. One day, your’re a modestly successful musician in Eastern Canada (Dave Carroll); the next you’re having a huge influence on what people think about United Airlines.
This is perhaps the biggest challenge and opportunity within the influence game. No one has cracked the nut on determining an influencer because the criteria is a moving target. One minute, you’re seen as influential; the next you’re yesterday’s news.
Despite the challenge and the questions about the role of influencers, the hunt for the influencer continues unabated. We want to believe there are influencers and they do matter because it would make the life much easier for brands that want to have a major impact by less doing work.
Maybe we’re looking for a shortcut or maybe we’re lazy. Perhaps it’s an attempt to engage and have conversations in a more efficient way. However you want to slice it, we want to believe influencers exist, and no one – not even Clay Shirky – is going to persuade us otherwise.
