Influencers: Don't Call Them 'Bloggers'

We need a new name for the Long Tail influencers whom we engage in online word of mouth marketing programs. These are folks who are influential amongst some type of affinity they share with their followers.

Mom bloggers, Green bloggers, Shopping Deal Twitterers, Facebook group "owners", message board mavens. Their platforms matter but are not what defines them. Many digitally active communicators express themselves across many platforms - their blog, Facebook groups, Twitter account, hell, even, their email account is critical to their 'relevant reach.' Our model for identifying and segmenting these new influencers takes into account this platform 'ambidexterousness.'

So, what do we call them ( I could have said 'what do we call ourselves'-  I am pitched, and while I have never boasted the reach of the 'head-of-the-tail' influencers, I have my circle of folks who care about best practice social media and word of mouth marketing....)

I continue to push against the generic term of 'blogger' mostly due to its inaccuracy. Not all 'digital' influencers rely on blogs. Some who used to have migrated to other platforms like Titter or lifestreaming platforms like FriendFeed or Posterous.

Influencers? Media? Trust Agents? Social Media Actives?

Look at the following:

Wikipedia's entry on Influencer Marketing: covers some of the fundamentals of influence from Cialdini's book on Influence to Keller and Berry's foundational book, Influentials.

Word of Mouth Marketing Association's Influencer Handbook: this resource goes one step further to make identifying, segmenting and engaging influencers actionable. This resource obviously uses the marketer-centric term "influencer" to identify 5 classes of influencer only one of which includes the social media influencer.

Dr. Taly Weiss of Trendspotting published a deck of 2009 predictions from "social media influencers" earlier this year. In it, she predicted that influence and influencers will become much more measureable and that "people will become the media." This begs the question as to whether we shouldn't label influencer/bloggers/social media actives as "media" or "new media." Seems to me that the baggage of the term 'media' isn't quite right either. Certainly peer-to-peer and "strangers with expertise" influence is challenging the historic role of media in all its forms yet with the interaction and conversation qualities, new influencers are not the same as the authoritative content deliverers we call 'media' (CNN, NYTimes, advertisers, etc...)

Chris Brogan, blogger-turned-marketer: I respect Chris as the quintessential alpha-blogger. Read his credits in his bio and you will see that even his accomplishments go far beyond blogging and tweeting. His new book (haven't read yet) is about "Trust Agents." Here's how Amazon describes the concept: "Trust agents aren't necessarily marketers or salespeople; they're the digitally savvy people who use the Web to humanize businesses using transparency, honesty, and genuine relationships. As a result, they wield enough online influence to build up or bring down a business's reputation. This book will show you how to build profitable relationships with trust agents, or become one yourself...." Again, the term, albeit made up to "own" an online meme, is from a marketers perspective.

What am I looking for?  

A term that describes the role all of these new influencers play from a marketing perspective yet is also palatable to the influencers themselves. Maybe that is unneccesary. I would settle for a name that is more accurate.

For now, I will stick with "influencers" or "new influencers" and qualify that what i mean are those millions of people who have found a publishing, communication and influence platform via the broad umbrella we know as the Social Web.

What do you call them/us/yourself?

Comments

[Cat @ 3 Kids and Us]

Eh I would venture to guess you're thinking too hard about it. Sure I have some influence but deep down, I'm just a "mommy blogger". I blog about my life as a mom and share my thoughts on the products that we use.

[Jerry Silfwer (Doktor Spinn)]

I've thougt about this a lot, and I call them "social media naturals".

As a local PR professional and blogger, I've tried to find a common ground for these people. It doesn't seem to be IQ nor writing talents. These people come in many different shapes ranging over many different channels.

Some are controversial and dramatic, others diplomatic and analytical. The only common ground I've found is their natural ability to leverage social media as they see fit.

So, since the conversation in Sweden is quite lively, with Stockholm being a hotspot for innovation, conversation and early adopters, the term "social media naturals" has already gained some mainstream media recognition.

Steve Rubel talked at a Disruptive Media seminar about "social media allstars", but the star quality label is to much "Hollywood", at least as a working description of the Northern European social media influencers community.

[Rotkapchen]

I see it both as an 'informal' title (which perhaps needs no title because they're simply known as 'friends' or 'colleagues' or 'associates'). But a title as it relates to what they accomplish is relevant. While it might depend on the 'flavor' of the relationships, in some cases they're what I call 'relationship brokers' -- not a particularly warm and fuzzy title, but it focuses on the results of what is done.

A more generic title that has been used in the past for people asked to fill these sorts of roles in a corporate setting is a bit more meaningful: catalyst.

[Kerry Lange]

Great post John, we've been discussing this for some time at Ammo. We often use the term "Uber Influencer" to describe people who are economically driven to Influence, meaning their career or ability to make money is the driving factor for being a maven, connector, etc. rather than social status. People like "mommy bloggers" are a bit in a gray area as some of them derive economic benefit from being an Influencer, such as ad dollars or free product, but some of them just happen to be blogging about their lives, like Cat.

We've also started using the term "human media" when speaking to clients about purchasing because it becomes very easy for them to relate that to the other media channels they're used to. In essence, we are using humans to broadcast a message rather than a print ad or billboard. Honestly, the term catalyst is far more appealing to me than human media as it feels less commoditized and more personal.

I think eventually there will need to be a distinction between professional/semi-professional bloggers, who have an editorial standard and reputation to maintain, and casual bloggers who just write about whatever they want to write about, especially when it comes to how marketers deal with them and how transparent their communications are to their readers.