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Got Influence? Twitter, Facebook and the New Buzz Machine

Joe Maglitta | Date: 07-07-09 | Comments

Companies are rethinking how they get their message to the masses. Instead of journalists and PR agencies, they are looking more and more to key influencers to, via social media, help build buzz.

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Got Influence? Twitter, Facebook and the New Buzz Machine - The Endorsement: It Worked for Smokes, Scotch and Zit Cream

It Worked for Smokes, Scotch and Zit Cream

The current focus on �decision maker ecosystems� updates a well-worn page from the politicians� playbook: Indentify friendly faces, preferably neighborhood big shots. Get them excited, then have them spread the word for and about you. If all goes well, you soon have a grassroots movement that will attract press and wider attention.

Social influence marketing also updates and personalizes one of the oldest, hoariest forms of advertising: the endorsement. Now, instead of film star Ronald Reagan hawking Chesterfield cigarettes, Bill Murray repping Suntory Scotch in the film �Lost in Translation� or Jessica Simpson pushing ProActiv acne treatment, it�s that successful young CEO, your favorite microblogger mom or your cool friend saying that XYZ is insanely great. You know a celebrity (or even a no-name) endorser is getting paid; you assume (maybe rightly) that your Uncle Leo is not.

In its own way, Microsoft�s current �I�m a PC� ad campaign reflects this spirit: A loopy mom and �tween son shop for laptops and gleefully discover they cost less than Macs. Just someone like you and me, saving money. It�s why the company's Jerry Seinfeld ads flopped.

Nobody Knows You�re a Dog

Unlike some of my peers in media and marketing, I�m not freaked out by the rise of influencer marketing. Really, it�s just a twist on what�s been going on since the invention of the flint spear, wheel and wineskins.

More people involved in the process means ideas will rise and fall more quickly and easily. It�s already happening, and it�s all good. Why wait for a single cranky journalist to get around to writing something? The masses twittering can actually serve a valuable role doing some legwork for journalists, identifying and vetting trends that warrant closer, more objective scrutiny.

That said, a healthy dose of caution is in order. Like them or not, professional journalists and PR people, the responsible ones anyway, act as an important check on unfiltered utterances from companies that range from unrealistically enthusiastic to outright lies. Without them, whether it's politics or tech, we�re back to �On the Internet, nobody knows you�re a dog.�

Then there�s the question of disclosure. Presumably, objective journalists have no ax to grind. In this new world, much of that transparency is lost. The better Websites publish disclosures of authors� connections. No such custom or mechanism currently exists for influence marketing.

All this means that being a smarter user of technology today requires you to become a smarter, more aware consumer of technology information. �Consider your sources� and �check your facts� are bedrock maxims of professional journalism. So is asking, �Why is this person telling me this?� Not bad to keep in mind the next time you get an enthusiastic e-mail from a �friend.�