Top Influence Marketing News: Mining Influentials and the Unspoken Truth About Influential Liars

August 10, 2012

This week in Top Influence Marketing News, we have a broad spectrum of viewpoints on everything from emerging trends in social influence marketing to an interesting dive into the lies of influential experts.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

Mining Influentials

PR/media strategist Peter Himler checks in at Forbes with his take on the significant challenge that PR pros face with today’s rather fragmented media landscape.

Thanks to Twitter and the rise of social media, earning attention is more difficult than ever, and Peter acknowledges that consumers are overexposed in a rapidly shifting information age:

“A fire-hosed and fickle media-consuming public has already moved on to the next news flash before most stories have a chance to sprout roots.”

So when PR and communication pros are still tasked with “breaking through” the wall of noise to seek out and contribute to relevant conversations for their clients – where do they turn (hint – it’s not automated databases) to discover these key influential conversations?

In the article, Peter dives in for a hands-on look at several influence measurement tools, or what he calls “algorithmic-driven services,” including Muck Rack, GroupHigh, Appinions and more. It’s a fair and balanced review, offering a brief rundown of each tool and how they might fit into a PR pros outreach budget. We were definitely honored to be included.

Read the full article from Forbes here – Mining Influentials.

Six hot trends in social influence marketing

Mark Schaefer is at it again, this time observing what he sees as the six key emerging trends in social influence marketing.

With the surging tide of content – thanks to increasing global access to high speed internet and the rise of free social publishing tools – anyone and everyone can create content around the topics that matter to them.

Are we really seeing the true democratization of influence?

Mark says “yes” as he discusses six developments in social influence marketing to watch for, such as influence marketing moving into mainstream marketing budgets, connecting online conversations to offline behavior and identifying influencers in context (we’re big fans on this one and appreciate Mark’s shout out to Appinions here).

Get the rest of Mark’s trend predictions in the full article at Grow – Six hot trends in social influence marketing.

Influencer Marketing Helps Spread the Word

This article from Paige O’Neill at Business 2 Community tackles the basics of influence marketing for brands, starting with defining who niche influencers really are.

Ranging from a wide spectrum of industries and roles – bloggers, industry analysts, though leaders, journalists, etc. – these niche influencers are the connected individuals/experts who have traditionally played a very important role in word of mouth.

The article does a good job of outlining core tips for getting started with influencer marketing, from identifying key influencers and using influence measurement tools to creating a content marketing strategy to support outreach efforts.

Read the full article at Business 2 Community – Influencer Marketing Helps Spread the Word

The Whole Fuss About “Influencer Marketing”

Chris Brogan offers his view on influence, from someone who understands the other side of the coin – being an influencer.

In response to the noise over his review of a recent stay at The Port Royal Resort – Chris dives in head first and acknowledges the challenges that an evolving influence marketing discipline presents – to brands, influencers and consumers alike.

It’s a tricky tightrope walk when someone with online influence writes a good intentioned review of a positive experience they had with a business. Despite not having any formal affiliation or partnership with Port Royal (other than receiving a free stay), Chris’ post ignited a passionate conversation about whether influence marketing is useful and how it should be handled on both sides of the equation.

As Chris says, the lines are easily blurred on social networks and blogs, and the need (and legal requirement) for disclosure of relationships with businesses that influential bloggers review is often debated by communicators across all disciplines.

Perhaps the best point comes toward the end of Chris’ post, offering this:

“Who are the influencers? Is it me? Sometimes. Is it you? Often. It’s fluid.”

Read Chris’ full take on influence marketing here – The Whole Fuss About “Influencer Marketing”

The Unspoken Truth About Influential Liars

As we’ve come to expect from Jure Klepic, he starts his most recent article for Huffington Post with a bang:

“Apparently lying is in the very core of our nature as human beings.”

The Unspoken Truth About Influential Liars is a interesting piece – one that examines the impact of dangerous lies that are perpetuated by people we believe are experts.

Example A being Ryan Holiday, author of Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator.

Jure takes aim at the underlying paradox in Ryan Holiday’s book – that while Holiday claims to be exposing the manipulation behind today’s media coverage, he also seems to be contributing to its further demise simultaneously.

Some important distinctions come to mind here, and Jure catapults from Holiday’s book to some deeper questions on the role of influence in this brave new digital world.

Is social media as a benchmark for growing influence overriding the ethical standards of blogs, which are in essence front runners of the new media? How do we really know when someone we assume is an expert is actually lying to us?

Find out in the full article at the Huffington Post – The Unspoken Truth About Influential Liars

What were your favorite articles on influence marketing from this week? Feel free to share in the comment section!

Image credit: Isma Monfort

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