Understanding influence in social media

© 2010 Thomas Doyle

Francesco D’Orazio, Research Director, Face, @abc3d

AQR, London, 5 September 2011

In 1958 Herbert Kelman identified three broad varieties of social influence:"

compliance appear to agree with others, but actually keep dissenting opinions private "

identification influenced by someone who is liked and respected "

internalization accept a belief or behavior and agree both publicly and privately

© 2010 Thomas Doyle

Informational social Influence"

© 2010 Thomas Doyle

Our need to be right

Our need to be liked Normative social influence

The Asch Conformity Experiments

The classical definition of social influence focuses more on the the many influencing the one

“Social influence occurs when an individual's thoughts, feelings or actions are

affected by other people.”

unless we are confronted with an extraordinary individual…

authority

celebrity

charisma

Now, has social media changed the mechanics of social influence?

Three types of structures in social media:"

Pyramid > Twitter"

Circle > Facebook "

Hybrid > Blogs, Google +

Cosmic 140 © Information Architects, Inc. 2010

Extended reach means democratization of influence. The focus moves onto the "one(s) influencing the many

Speed: scaling at network level much faster then before

Traceability means we can monitor the extended influence

x

Traceability means we can monitor the extended influence

NYTlabs > Project Cascade"structures underlying sharing activity on the web "

Generating Awareness

Setting the Agenda

Polarizing the Discussion

Conforming

Advocating

Purchasing Social Influence in social media

…the underlying single mechanic being Behaviour Change

© B.J. Fogg – The Fogg Behavior Model

What defines an influencer?

Universal influencers do not exist

Domain-specific influencers do exist

© 2010 Thomas Doyle

Credibility: expertise, charisma, authority in a specific domain

Trust: ability to set the agenda, trigger

discussions and generating reactions

Reach: access to a potentially wide network of people

Network Quality: 2nd, 3rd, 4th level

connections

Timing: ability to be in synch with the needs of the audience

Influence by volume

Influence by visibility

Influence by engagement

Social network analysis shows influence networks are built on passions and

interests, not demographics.

Michel Maffesoli introduced the

idea of neo-tribalism in post-modern societies

in 1996

Social Media has ‘just’ supported an emergent behaviour that was already there

Too often influence networks analysis is associated with PR and promotions. "

But its most valuable benefit is actually mapping audiences by clusters of passions and interests

And where does this leave demographics?

Thanks Francesco D’Orazio, @abc3d

© 2010 Thomas Doyle