What makes one person more influential than another?

Posted: September 30th, 2009 | Filed under: - Usable Tools - | Tags: social media | No Comments »

This morning I attended an interesting seminar hosted by the Word Of Mouth UK Association in which The Guardian shared some research they have recently conducted on what makes one person more influential than another.

You can find out more by visiting their website (shame about the cheesy music) and I have put the flyer that was handed out at the bottom of this post.

They introduced 4 concepts which I will share here:

• Weak Ties
• Bridging Capital
• Status Bargain
• ACTIVE – measurable characteristics of influencers

WEAK TIES
Having an abundance of Weak Ties gives an individual access to new sources of information and the ability to spread that information.

Weak Ties are either Social Glue or Social Oil:

Social Glue
- Strong ties: close family and friends

Social Oil
- Weak ties: colleague, friend of a friend, extended family, person met through hobby activity or online

Strong ties help you get by – they provide you with emotional support.
Weak ties help you get on – they give you the power of amplification through the size of your networks and cross-network sharing.

BRIDGING CAPITAL
Bridging Capital enables influencers to package this information in a away that makes it easier for other people to take it on board.

It is a combination of Social and Cultural Capital:

Social Capital
- size & diversity of your network
- ability to spread messages

Cultural Capital
- accumulated knowledge
- ability to influence others

The ability to spread a variety of information in a variety of contextual settings is vital.  If all you do is bang on about fishing wherever you are, you will soon get ignored.

STATUS BARGAIN
Individuals will modify their views to take on the opinions of others; the bargain is that they gain enhanced status by being more knowledgeable.  Influencers feed this.

We trust the opinions of people we know who make Status Bargains.

ACTIVE – measurable characteristics of influencers
Evident in a higher incidence amongst influential people are a set of shared characteristics:

• Ahead in Adoption
• Connected
• Traveller
• Information-Hungry
• Vocal
• Exposed to Media

Whilst none of this is really new thinking, what is interesting is that there is data you can play with – the Guardian’s Word of Mouth database – with results fused to TGI, it enables agencies and brands to identify and understand key players active in word of mouth.

Check out – http://www.guardian.co.uk/adinfo/wom/ – and share any of your insights and comments on this.

This morning I attended an interesting seminar hosted by the Word Of Mouth UK Association in which The Guardian shared some research they have recently conducted on what makes one person more influential than another.

You can find out more by visiting their website (shame about the cheesy music) and I have put the flyer that was handed out at the bottom of this post.

They introduced 4 concepts which I will share here:

• Weak Ties
• Bridging Capital
• Status Bargain
• ACTIVE – measurable characteristics of influencers

WEAK TIES
Having an abundance of Weak Ties gives an individual access to new sources of information and the ability to spread that information.

Weak Ties are either Social Glue or Social Oil:

Social Glue
- Strong ties: close family and friends

Social Oil
- Weak ties: colleague, friend of a friend, extended family, person met through hobby activity or online

Strong ties help you get by – they provide you with emotional support.
Weak ties help you get on – they give you the power of amplification through the size of your networks and cross-network sharing.

BRIDGING CAPITAL
Bridging Capital enables influencers to package this information in a away that makes it easier for other people to take it on board.

It is a combination of Social and Cultural Capital:

Social Capital
- size & diversity of your network
- ability to spread messages

Cultural Capital
- accumulated knowledge
- ability to influence others

The ability to spread a variety of information in a variety of contextual settings is vital.  If all you do is bang on about fishing wherever you are, you will soon get ignored.

STATUS BARGAIN
Individuals will modify their views to take on the opinions of others; the bargain is that they gain enhanced status by being more knowledgeable.  Influencers feed this.

We trust the opinions of people we know who make Status Bargains.

ACTIVE – measurable characteristics of influencers
Evident in a higher incidence amongst influential people are a set of shared characteristics:

• Ahead in Adoption
• Connected
• Traveller
• Information-Hungry
• Vocal
• Exposed to Media

Whilst none of this is really new thinking, what is interesting is that there is data you can play with – the Guardian’s Word of Mouth database – with results fused to TGI, it enables agencies and brands to identify and understand key players active in word of mouth.

Check out – http://www.guardian.co.uk/adinfo/wom/ – and share any of your insights and comments on this.

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