Week 2: Online Marketing to Influence the Influencers

I realize the title of this post sounds a bit goofy.

But this is really what it comes down to as a marketer. In this Mashable article, Barb Dybwad analyzes the Forrester's Marketing Forum about the state of "Online Word Of Mouth Marketing." However, the argument that's presented is almost exactly to the letter what Malcolm Gladwell presented in his 2002 book The Tipping Point - basically, word of mouth trends are pushed by certain types of people, and that reaching the right people at the right time is key to a marketer's success.

In Gladwell's book, there are Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Forrester analyst Augie Ray refers to a similar concept as Social Broadcasters (at the top), Mass Influencers (middle), and Potential Influencers (bottom of the pyramid). Reaching Social Broadcasters is not a new concept (at least trying to reach them isn't), but only as of recently can we say that online marketers have been having a lot of success doing so.

The most obvious example in my mind about reaching these Social Broadcasters (or Connectors) is the Social Media campaign recently unleashed by Old Spice Body Wash. This campaign was considered successful because of the sheer amount of sharing that went on. But why did this campaign tip so quickly? As we can see now, Old Spice did their homework. They reached out to Social Broadcasters and Connectors. I think the best was the ongoing response with Alyssa Milano. By reaching out to her and her hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers, Old Spice engaged a Social Broadcaster.




And by continuing to post and engage regular consumers - the Salesmen and Mavens, Mass Influencers and Potential Influencers - Old Spice carried out online exactly what Gladwell, and more recently Forrester, were talking about.