SNCR Keynote: Complexities Of Influencer Marketing
The Newcomm Forum 2008 for the Society for New Communications Research will be held on April 22-25, 2008 at the Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa, in Sonoma Country, California. The theme of the conference is Conversation - Insight - Action.
I thought I'd put a spotlight on some of the keynote sessions and panel discussions that will be held at the conference. I asked Paul Gillin, a Senior Fellow of the Society to talk about his session, "Understanding the Complexities of Influencer Marketing," a conversation between Paul Gillin and Nick Hayes, co-author of the book, "Influencer Marketing."
Q: You will be talking with Nick Hayes from Influencer50 at the sncr conference on the keynote, "understanding the complexities of influencer marketing," could you give me an overview of some of the factors that make up influence that you will discuss in your panel?
A: The premise of the Hayes and Brown book isn't that influencers don't matter but that marketers target too small a universe of influencers. Most marketers, they assert, consider influencers to be mainly press and analysts. In fact, they suggest that the list is far larger and more diverse than that, encompassing more than 20 categories ranging from channel players to venture capitalist to government agencies and systems integrators. They argue that many of these influencers are far more important than the media because they speak directly to a company's customers. They pay particular attention, for example to second-tier consultancies, systems integrators and buyers groups. These people are whispering in the year of customers every day, yet most marketers aren't even aware that they're talking.
So this discussion will focus on the categories of influencers that are most often overlooked, why they are influential and what marketers should be doing differently to reach out to these people.
Q: Will you be discussing the now famous Duncan Watts hypothesis in your panel discussion?
A: We will certainly touch on it, because Watts calls into question the whole roll of influencer marketing. However, the thrust of Hayes' and Brown's research is identifying new categories of influencers, not evaluating the role of influence marketing in general. So I expect that the Watts controversy will be a tangential topic, but that the overall thrust will be on how to reach these little-noticed voices
Q: Lastly, I think the example of Dell with how they run customer engagement gives us an example of a company that considers everyone who is a customer is influential and connecting with through the web. What does the Dell story teach us about influence?
A: Dell has been the victim of at least three major blog attacks, to my knowledge. Many companies would probably use that as an excuse to avoid engaging with online influencers, but Dell has done exactly the opposite. I think their experience actually taught them in vivid terms how important individuals can be in shaping customer and public opinion. So when Michael Dell is quoted in BusinessWeek saying, "These conversations are going to occur whether you like it or not. You can learn from that. You can improve your reaction time. And you can be a better company by listening and being involved in that conversation," it's because he has learned the hard way that every customer matters. This is probably not how most companies would prefer to learn about social media, but it has been an effective and efficient lesson for Dell.
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I am a Founding Fellow of the society, and Jen McClure, the Executive Director of the society has given me a discount code to give to a few people who wish to attend. If you are interested, send me an email.
