Influencers have been a buzz word for a long time in online PR and social media marketing. And... I've never been completely convinced by it myself. I'm not saying they are not important but say Penny Red shouts loudly about something, thats nice. But when my old school friend who rarely has an opinion talks about something at the same time my apolitical brother does... well...
And that goes for music, books, products or whatever. I know Mashable know their stuff and today I was really interested to hear them talking about this but I'm only going to seriously think about consuming it if other less techy / influential people seem to be jumping on the band wagon.
Anyway, this is what prompted these thoughts:
"...Watts and Dodds (2007) argue that the "influentials hypothesis" is based on untested assumptions and in most cases does not match how diffusion operates in the real world. They comment that 'most social change is driven not by influentials, but by easily influenced individuals influencing other easily influenced individuals'. -- Internet Marketing Strategey, Implementation and Practive (Chaffey, Prentice Hall)
I suppose if I think of the Mashable example then I think the influencer (in this case the news feed from Mashable) acts as a primer for those "on the fence" about something and "the moderately connected majority" perhaps the catalyst.
Interesting though isn't it?
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