In my previous post, I identified three types of influencers that Malcom Gladwell discussed in The Tipping Point: Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen. Finding these alleged influencers has been the subject of many snake-oil salesmen and marketing companies since Gladwell’s book came out. Now, Pollara’s study has corroborated what some marketers have feared all along: that influencers aren’t necessary to reach millions of people, and that other factors, such as family suggestion and randomness, actually have far more of an impact on the propagation of trends.

These approaches are not necessarily irreconcilable. There is great variability in how we treat the opinions of family and friends. If I were interested in the best poker website, I’d ask Justin, who can tell me about the competition, the rake, and the interface of any site out there. He’s a Maven when it comes to online poker, and he’s also a friend that I trust—the latter doesn’t disqualify him from being the former. Another Maven might have a popular poker blog, but I wouldn’t trust it if I wanted the best information. So pitting “friends and family” against “Mavens or popular sources of information” sets up a false dichotomy. Pliny the Younger (pictured) was sought out by family members and strangers alike, but among his family members, he had a large influence.

Connectors, too, can be found among friends and family—in fact, if anyone’s likely to be counted among friends, it’s a connector. Finding that friends and family are more influential in purchasing decisions still doesn’t help delineate which friends and family have the most impact. Since I’d rather get advice from someone in my social network, I’d go to the Connector in my network if no one in my immediate circle could be trusted as an expert.

The same line of reasoning applies to salesmen, although the process would be less of a conscious one. Who are we persuaded by among our family members? The outgoing, enthusiastic ones who love what they do—Gladwell’s salesmen.

To sum up, it may be important to find Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen because they spread influence among their social groups, not because they have massive clout in the flat, online world of social networks. They have friends and families too, and may impact those groups accordingly. The influence that people have may vary in both quantity and quality, and both of those facets are important; imposing distinctions between friends and family as compared to wide, non-personal influences manages to ignore distinctions between the two facets. It’s certainly possible that online “influencers” have a greater quantity of influence (in the sheer number of people that they reach), but family members will have influence that’s of a higher quality—and more likely to influence behavior. It is still the influencers among that group, however, that may have the biggest impact.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Research, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.