I have been meaning to blog about this event and WOM UK for a while now. I went along to their Espresso Briefing with David Brain from Edelman, I am not sure that you could have had a better "espresso" companion than David (incidentally his blog is well worth reading) The research, although obviously wrapped into a sales tool for The Guardian, was interesting.
The research into the component factors of influencers struck me as very smart - WEAK TIES, relationships and networks outside close family and friends - people who connect out loosely with multiple networks allow messages to "leap" out of closed circles, BRIDGING CAPITAL, an ability to make information contextualised and relevant to others, - people who build and connect together seemingly random bits of information and make something new and interesting out of them and STATUS BARGAIN, a willingness to listen and modify their own opinions, making them more trustworthy - people who ask questions and engage as much as they broadcast out their own opinions.
WOM seem to have a jam-packed event diary for the rest of the year. The next one is a work in progress case study presentation from Mat Morrison at PR agency Porter Novelli. There is a little gang of us going to that one, so let me know if you're attending.
Also if you have any thoughts on whether it's worth becoming a WOM UK member I'd love to hear them.
It might be my natural cynicism when confronted by sales material, but isn't this just Tipping Point through the lens of Guardian readers? The major shift from Gladwell is the Status Bargain concept, which has a lot of merit but seems to be the negative capability (or fence-sitting) over ideas that is stereotypical of Guardian readers (and so the starting point for segmentation when selling them as an audience). I was sorry I missed the presentation as it sounds like a really interesting approach, but this deck looks way more salesy than I'd expected.
Posted by: graeme | Thursday, 22 October 2009 at 09:19 AM
I hate presentations that assert they've "proved" anything. And the deck seems to suggest that influencers are a special segment.
But now, potentially everyone and, in reality, an increasing number of people are influencers around a certain subject or subjects for ever-changing networks.
Posted by: John | Thursday, 22 October 2009 at 12:11 PM
P.S. Best stat Ive seen this week - 70% of the bloggersphere use twitter. Only 14% of the real (I assume online) world does. Are echochambers influential?
Posted by: John | Thursday, 22 October 2009 at 12:13 PM
WOM is the good one source..
Posted by: Study Marketing London | Saturday, 24 October 2009 at 05:45 AM