Social media and new technology have changed the balance of power over who can influence and how they do it. With blogs, message boards and chat rooms, you need not be a star journalist or celebrity to shape opinions. Citizen journalists can topple news anchors and Senate majority leaders. Everyday individuals can influence purchasing decisions of entire online communities.
As the former head of Word of Mouth Association (WOMA) Andy Sernovitz wrote to me:
"Forget about celebrities. No one cares. In the age of word of mouth marketing real people are the true celebrities. The opinions of people like us are the only thing that matters any more. I don't care which movie star or athlete uses a product -- if the reviews on Amazon are bad, I'm not buying it."
Books like the Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point have popularized the notion that there are special individual experts out there - connectors, mavens, etc, if you will - who are driving buzz and influencing consumer buying habits. Tap them and their network and the crowds will tip your way.
Armed with this insight, marketers have sought out and enlisted these thought leaders to drive online word of mouth efforts. But new research and marketing results may dispel this latest conventional wisdom. Information Week's Alice LaPlante looked at how new opinion leaders drove buzz on the web and suggests in a piece last week that this new way of thinking "may be overly simplistic."
She writes: "Indeed a growing school of thought is that influentials aren't so much leading trends as acting as mouthpieces for underlying social movements that are either in progress or lying fallow waiting to be triggered. Thus successful marketing doesn't depend so much on finding influential people and seeding them with ideas so much as doing the kind of research that exposes embryo trends and then helping influentials discover them."
So where should online marketing dollars be spent - seeking out key influencers to drive opinion? Or should marketers first identify trends and then look for individuals that embody that trend - whether they are opinion leaders or just ordinary folks who want to talk about their product experience?
Finding an answer may be like trying to determine the order of the chicken or the egg. It is true that you can't manufacture a wave of support within a community by just identifying opinion leaders. It is also true that a wave won't swell without the backing of influencers.
Organic Advocacy
I asked Rob Fuggetta, founder/CEO of Zuberance, a Silicon Valley-based start-up what he thought. His firm helps companies identify, mobilize, and grow communities of authentic advocates.
Fuggetta wrote that 'there is no doubt that certain people have more influence over purchase decisions and perceptions than others. These people may not be trend-setters or early adopters, but they are indeed more influential because their opinions and recommendations are more trusted than others.
"Therefore, the goal for all of marketing -- indeed for the business itself -- is to create a vibrant community of advocates from and among these influentials. We call this 'organic advocacy.'
Companies can then amplify this organic advocacy by linking communities of advocates with other communities and individuals in authentic, relevant ways both online and offline."
Authenticity is Key
Marcus Colombano, over at Avantgarde has actually had success enlisting celebrities to use the products he has marketed.
His take: Throwing tons of money at all the influentials in the world won't work if the product itself doesn't meet a genuine unmet need. The brand experience has to be a reflection of the personal creativity of the user in order for a product to translate from a small circle to mass consumption.
In the end, it may not be about monitoring trends or recruiting influencers. LaPlante quotes Steve Rubel who addresses the growing prevalence of "influence fatigue." To influence, companies need to directly engage in the communities themselves. They can't buy their way in. They can't force their way in. They have to join communities or create legitimite ones, be active members and build influence through trust, candor and the strength of their product. As Steve points out, "that's an extremely labor intensive process." But in my view, the results are well worth the price of entry.
Let me get back to you.