Demystifying Influencers: From Pyramid to Diamond Model

CNET Networks conducted a three-part study called "Understanding Influence, and making it work for you" (Download here). It explored the structure of social networks, methods of acquiring information and the motivations for giving/sharing/influencing others. Guy Kawasaki explains the basic tenets of the study in his blog post.

But what I was interested in is the marketing or advertising takeaways from the white paper.

The study provides three key marketing takeaways:

1. Two unique characteristics of information that influencers value are that the information is unique and trusted.
   

2. Shape your marketing messages for the larger network of moderately connected users, not just the few highly connected individuals at the top.
   

3. Make content actionable for users.
   

But these theories may have some loophole. For instance, a meme originating in Facebook may or may not catch and have a world wide reach. But it may catch on in particular group and spread to other similar groups by virtue of the fact that a highly connected individual in a group on Facebook is also in a group of like minded individuals on MySpace.

So in a niche group context, the meme will spread. If enough niche groups catch on and the meme has a wide enough appeal it is likely to take of on a grander scale.

This can only occur if you have a large number of highly connected individuals in a niche. Without highly connected individuals there would be no way to connect outside of the specific niche group with other groups.

I would suggest that a highly connected individual must also be a highly active group member that also has a high degree of credibility within a group in order for a meme to spread (thanks to one of the commenter).

Other than this in country like India, there is a high chance that this theory may not be put into practice as such since demographics is widely varied, so different customers will consume the same product in different ways.

Note: In case, the pdf downloading plays crazy with your mind, shoot me a mail at sampad.s@gmail.com. I will send a fresh copy of the white paper ASAP.