1. When Influence is
“Real”
Mark did a cool post on Twelp Force and it inspired me to write about the fact that
d
this idea of influence on the net is something that is very hard to quantitatively
define. That is, while some of the steps required to be influential may be
systematic, creating influence ultimately resides in the power of the influenced.
Thus, just like war, the enemy gets a vote on the outcome of the events.
Many big time thinkers are going about, trying to define real influence and I think
most agree that influence has two main categories from which all othe can be
others
derived. Forgive the names, I wish there were better ones to choose from.
Non-Cyber-Influence – Influence based on Title, Company, Brand Reputation,
Experience, Documented Fact, Historical Narrative
Cyber-Influence – Internet Influence based on the volume of charged sentiment
found on blogs, tweets, status, and indexed content.
Best Buy is a company that has bridged the gap. They are a true example of the
ingenuity, taking a non-cyber based influence reputation and crossing it over,
cyber crossing
through the use of social media tools to a cyber based infleuencer model. Now,
future generations have the reputation of the Twelp Force to lean on for their future
purchasing decisions. Best Buy is a national retailer and like all retaile volume is
retailers
key. One of the neat aspects of their approach is that they’ve taken
a stealthy approach to creating a relationship with you. See that’s the cool part.

2. Retailers and e-tailers traditionally haven’t been able to create a relationship with
you, which is why the focus on price. BUT NOW, through the use of Social Media,
you might actually get to know some of your retailer-of-choice employees. This
creates a new standard of business operating procedure that gives Best Buy the
advantage of no longer having to rely on the lowest price as their de-facto
advantage.
The question becomes, is there a value in demonstrating to organizations what
their stored potential energy is in making this cross-over?
A follow-up would be, can I create the same level of influence starting from
ground up with a cyber only based influence system?
What do you think?
Posted in: Influencer Marketing