The Popularity Contest

I saw an article last week in Ad Age about Influencers.  In case you missed it, I’ve linked to it.  The gist of the piece is that having a lot of followers (it cites Bieber as an example) isn’t the same as having a lot of influence: being popular isn’t the same as being able to influence behavior.  The piece delves into Twitter quite a bit but it’s a good lesson for the worlds – virtual and real – beyond.

Each of us has folks who influence our decision-making.  Some of these people are closer to us personally – parents, siblings, significant others (that’s why they call them that!).  Others are people whom we barely know but who exert influence – columnists, politicians, higher-ups in our own company.  For the most part, there is little correlation to their influence over you as an individual and their overall popularity as measured by Twitter followers or Facebook friends.  While I’m always impressed by anyone’s ability to aggregate a network that has millions of potential impressions, we can’t confuse that ability to message with the ability to engage or influence.  Britney Spears has over 6.5 million Twitter followers while the NY Times has only 2.8 million.  You get the point.  Most of the top folks followed on Twitter follow back 10% or less of those following them.  I appreciate that celebrities and writers can have influence, but I question the degree to which they do when the conversation is a monologue (meaning that someone who is engaged in dialog is more likely to have a higher degree of influence).

I think some of this is about the decline of mass media.  35 years ago, with only a dozen major channels though which marketers and others could message, popularity was a closer measure of influence.  There wasn’t as much noise.  Today, those channels – broadcast TV networks, national magazines – have hundreds of channels with comparable audiences competing with them.  Lady Gaga tweets and it reaches more recipients than does a network’s evening news program.  I’m not sure, however, that message carries the same weight in most recipients’ minds.

The point is this.  Building a following in any channel is important but building an engaged following is critical.  We can’t have engagement without dialog if we’re going to move from being popular to being influential.  In marketing terms, we need to focus on conversions, not just messages delivered.  That comes from engagement and real influence.  In human terms, we need to go from being heard to being believed and acted upon.  The most popular kid in school wasn’t always the one to whom you looked for life advice.