To quote Ross Dawson – (Trends in living networks) the social media , online and media industries are beginning to talk about 2009 as the year influence Companies worldwide are rapidly shifting their marketing resources to tap the power of influence in the burgeoning world where the consumer has taken control.
In general terms there are a number of primary reasons for the increasing importance of influence:
* The democratization of media, which gives everyone a channel to propagate theirs or others’ opinions.
* Peer trust, which places far greater faith in individuals than corporate advertising and marketing.
* The ongoing fragmentation of mass media, which takes away the power of traditional marketing channels.
* The aggregation of social media, which gives a far stronger voice to the many individual conversations.
In this new paradigm of influence there are new marketing channels appearing and the value of channels has yet to be fully realised. The rise of the micro blogging platform Twitter is just one example. Comscore reported that the global Twitter usage figures for March, showed a 95% growth in the month to 19.1 million visitors. With its rise in popularity many people began to question whether Twitter had the capacity to continue to hold its audience, it appears to be early days in just deciding what and how this channel may develop over time, but it is important to say that it is having a big impact on traditional media.
While many are critical or skeptical of the how to use Twitter as a marketing or communication tool, there is an emerging group of businesses based on analyzing the conversation threads where people are speaking of brands. It is apparent that there is good insight and consumer validation to be gathered in this medium.
PDF Tags: brands, communications, consumer communications, influence, influencers, insight, intelligence, media, twitter
