Influencing Influencers

Handy little article on Marketing Profs today regarding who influencers are, and how you can start a dialogue with one.  Here are some of my favorite thoughts:

"These alpha influencers are the key to other customers' awareness, consideration, preference, and purchase. They advocate, rank, sort, evaluate, and ultimately create marketplace adoption. They come in the form of users, developers, channel partners, and press people."

"...general guidelines: they are well-traveled, almost always have a religious life, are often leaders (civic, business, nonprofit), and generally hold an activist approach to life. Almost always, they have a general sense of optimism because they believe in the power of good, they like people, love to orchestrate ideas, and they tend to be (but not always) great at building relationships.

Interesting statistic: four in ten have a connection to a professional association. This is a sign of their restless intellectual interests. Influencers continuously take input from what they see, hear, read, and keep turning it over in their mind for new insights and ideas. They are sometimes entrepreneurs."

"Influencers and alpha consumers are people who place importance on values: enduring love, knowledge, authenticity, stable personal relationships, learning, and freedom. When you can get them to pay attention to your offer/product/solution, you have the opportunity to shape the market."

The piece then goes on to outline in step by step fashion some guidelines on how to select and engage the right influencers:

1. Selection/sort matters
2. Size matters
3. Two-way flow is critical
4. Without listening, you're dead already
5. Spread the word using a calculated set of steps

I found the article to be pretty interesting—it's certainly worth the read.  BTW, if you're thinking about approaching me now that I'm a "level 2 influencer" (if you go by my fancy visual) ;-)—here are a few pointers:

1. If you're pitching—be honest and open about it.  Tell me you are pitching and don't lather me up with praise.  Tell me why what your pitching is great.  Better yet—prove it.

2. Know something about me—find some common ground and strike up a conversation.  Just like in life, chances are I'll be receptive and we'll end up talking.

3.  Make sure there is a fit.  If  I don't see an obvious  connection, I'll  think you are approaching everyone else the same way and get turned off in the process.

4. *Comment here.  I'm very loyal to the folks who take time to comment, participate and say something of value here.  I read and take to heart every comment on this blog even if I don't respond to it.  Commenting is actually a way of communicating with me.  I consider it a form of dialogue. (* this gets flagged because it's a big deal with me)

5. Be yourself.  Nobody likes a fake—not in marketing, business or life.  Just be who you are—I'll appreciate it because I'm trying to do the same thing here.

Anyway, good article.  Check it out.

Comments

[Valeria Maltoni]

David,

I'd like to point out that people may be at different levels of influential (your visual) in different contexts.

For example, in my personal network, I am a level 1. In that sphere, I am "linked" to more than 1,500 people through individual projects (over time, industries, geographies, etc.) and several professional groups. My network also includes an extremely high number of influencers and connectors like myself.

In the blogosphere I am a level 3... this is still a small world, getting bigger, but still small. And this is only one of the places in which I show up.

Think about this concept in terms of your customers and audiences. They may be "out of water" in your environment or stage, but yield impressive influence in the other environments that make up their lives, etc.

[DA]

Valeria,

Yes, you are absolutely correct. The visual is only showing the blogging world, but pointing out how ripples can spill outside as well. The vice versa is true and actually many influential bloggers have established their influence prior to starting a blog.

I fall in the catagory of someone with shallow influence outside of the blog but it has amplified that influence and spilled over into mainstream areas as well.

But you make a good point and it adds even more dimensions when thinking about this.

[John Young]

David, go IMMEDIATELY (if you haven't already) and go read Cory Doctorow's "Down and Out in the Magic Knigdom", in particular about "Whuffie". Or you could just read the Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie
I would love to work on building a reputation currency, and am seeking co-enthusists. Too bad "gravitas.org" is already taken.

Also, since I am a Card Carrying Internet Attention Whore, please peep my 2003 post about influencer ripples as they apply to the men's boxy shirt. My Venn diagrams aren't as candy-colored as yours, though:
http://www.tikaro.com/blog/archives/2003/07/a_taxonomy_of_b.html

[DA]

John,

I checked out the Wiki on Whuffie. I can't believe I just said that.

Anyway, it's really interesting. Like Karma 2.0!

Thanks for pointing that out, you card carrying internet attention whore.

:)

[Robert Hruzek]

Once again, David, you've elicidated a great formula for life! (Good one!) You just described how all great relationships develop.

The Five "B's"

#1 - Be honest
#2 - Be interested
#3 - Be understanding
#4 - Be communicative
#5 - Be genuine

[Aldana]

David, great article though I have one question about it. Since this refers to bloggers and their level of influence I can't help to correlate that with actual market being that Level 1 would be something like big brands/mainstream and Level a series of niches... Anyway, my question is: wouldn't it be better in terms of credibility/length of relationship to aproach Level 3's or 4's?.

Like you've said, being genuine plays a big part and we, as bloggers, tend to very perceptive of why "they" approach us. For example, I wouldn't trust Microsoft if they would aproach a Level 1 hence the whole influence thing goes away if not plays agaist the brand's image...

Does this make sense at all?

Aldana

[DA]

Aldana,

That's an interesting way to look at it, but I'm not sure that the size dictates credibility. If a company approaches an influential blogger that is RELEVANT to the audience they are trying to reach, then it only adds to the credibility of the blogger and I don't see that it harms the company. However it is then up to the blogger to take it from there. If a blogger becomes nothing more than an "advertisor"--that is where credibility is lost. This goes for all levels, not just the ones who enjoy a broad reach.

That said, it also makes sense for companies to approach larger numbers of bloggers who enjoy moderate or even "low" influence as long as there is relevance to the areas thes bloggers cover. that's the key. The other key is transparancy.

It's obvious why influencers are approached. They have established a following and have earned credibility. But regardless of size (or influence) credibility is just as easily lost as it is gained, so it's the bloggers that need to be most careful when entering in relationships with corporations. Good question though.

[Raj Dutta]

thanks for that link to the wired article on Jobs, david (and that's 100% lather free).
Big help to me as I am doing a similar piece on the Jobs-cult / apple-worship for a client presentationo, without being able to dissect as clearly.
Anyway, I’ve just blogged about this as well as Greenpeace's iMac spoof on my page http://misterdutta.blogspot.com/2007/01/make-my-iphone-green.html
cheers

[Toby Getsch]

Thanks for that reminder, and spark. It's a reminder that other people really are listening out there. And, it's a spark to keep going with some ideas that may not be totally flushed out yet. - - I'm listening. Thanks.

[CK]

DA: Thanks so much for pointing out this article and expounding on it...I fear I otherwise would have missed it.

I promise if I ever pitch you I shall follow your guidelines :-). Btw, might be a good idea to copy and paste those into its own post to "live" somewhere on your blog so that people know the rules before they blindly pitch you. I've seen other bloggers do it elsewhere and I've thought of doing it as I've been getting a lot of blind press releases lately and I'm like, huh? I guess that's how a lot of journalists have felt. Oy!

What are people thinking? Alas, I guess they're not thinking. Thanks again for this.

[Ronald Coyle]

I enjoyed reading this post very much. I'm actually somewhat familiar with influencership in the blogosphere. I've worked on several projects monitoring brand awareness in the blogosphere. Howevever, I still have a lot to learn. I think one of the hardest things to get across when trying i explaining how influential a particular blogger is. Many people feel a person is influential because they post a lot. For example, I have been posting several times a week on my blog http://www.conceptsmarketing.blogspot.com. However, I'm not very influential. On the other hand, I've noticed several bloggers posting only once a week who have decent blog rankings according to Technorati and Blogpulse. Anyways, nice take, but any feedback which you could provide me so I may become one the the "Influentials" would be greatly appreciated.

[DA]

Raj, nice piece I think there are folks who are a little tired of some of the Apple hype. It's a great brand but I mean let's get some perspective!

Toby, thanks for listening.

CK, not a bad idea. I need an assistant now to help me manage my blog. ;)

Ronald, the best advice I can give is work really hard (and smart) and do this:
http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2006/06/the_four_cs_of_.html

[Roger von Oech]

I really like the initial comment on this post -- made by Valeria. It's possible for someone to be — as you put — a 3 or a 4 or — gasp! — a 5 in the blogosphere but wield a lot of influence in other spheres.

What are the warning signals for recognizing when a blogger is taking himself too seriously?

[DA]

"What are the warning signals for recognizing when a blogger is taking himself too seriously?"

When said blogger starts writing about himself in third person. :)

[Marianne Richmond]

David,
Great visual...very interesting discussion about the different contexts for influence. Relevance is an important part of the equation, so glad you put it in....like all of life's mysteries the answer to the "influence question" is probably, "it depends." It depends on who you want to influence and what you want to influence "them" to do.

Marianne

[Steven C.]

Thanks for the article Dave. I know you've done posts that link back to the more popular posts you've done in the past...have you already done a similar post of all the popular articles you've discussed in the past?

[DA]

Steven,

Look at the left column under "Greatest Hits", I've put a collection of some of the more popular posts. Also, check out "A visual archive" under catagories.

Marianne—yeah context and relevancy is everything huh?

[Ronald Coyle (AKA marketrman)]

Thanks for the advice. I'll make sure to improvise as many of those suggestions as possible.

[Jessi Hempel]

David, I'm lifting those five points to throw at the people who pitch me every day.... !

[Daniel Mcgonagle]

Hi David,

That was very profound. I agree with you. Influencing people can be very difficult. Especially when you create an online presence, you can't expect people to follow your every move and yield sales. It all boils down to one question: what kind of influence are you?