Chris Woodley has somehow managed to include a police mug shot of Frank Sinatra in a blog post about social media, and it is relevant, actually. (You'll see the connection if you read it.)

He writes at Social Media Trader on the subject of social proof [from Wikipedia: Social proof, also known as informational social influence, is a psychological phenomenon that occurs in ambiguous social situations when people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior. Making the assumption that surrounding people possess more knowledge about the situation, they will deem the behavior of others as appropriate or better informed].

In other words, if you see a lot of people subscribing to a blogger, you probably will too, or follow them on Twitter. Is there value in that, or does blindly joining the sheeple give one a sense that they are not missing out on something important?

It can work both ways. I have personally added a ton of social media influencers to my RSS reader and will publicly admit to being excited when one of their names goes bold to indicate that they've updated their blog = means I will learn something. I'd say around 60% of those have been recommended to me, or I've checked out a "Top 20 Most Popular Social Media Blogger" list or something similar.

The other 40% are people that I've found myself; niche specialists that concentrate on one area of social media, say, good causes, toy safety or cat lovers. (Client work.) They all have their own ways of doing things, some mainstream, some extremely inventive ... and the great ones write about tangible results of what worked and what didn't. It's a gold mine of trends showing where social media is heading.

Woodley mentions the art of faking social proof - artificially inflating the amount of "fans" that bloggers have, and relates it to Frank Sinatra's manager paying girls to scream for him at concerts. [I knew I'd get there in the end, thanks for sticking with it.]

Sinatra was the influencer of his day; things were simpler then, and it's interesting to consider whether he'd be successful as a social media influencer today using the same tactics.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada