Who are the influencers? Ever since the New York Times Sunday Review published an opinion piece on the rising relevance of influencer metrics, that's been the burning question on every marketer's mind. But, as an innocuous comment from Beth Harte reminded me, the reality is that influencers are often not the people that immediately come to mind.
Beth wrote, "As the research shows, it's the quiet ones we all need to look out for, not the flashy rock stars." That reminded me of a slide I once saw at an early WOMMA conference. While I don't recall the presenter, I've never forgotten the actual slide and have often used it to demonstrate our misconceptions about what makes someone an "influencer."
The slide was very simple: just a headline and photo. The headline was a simple question: "Who is the most influential person?" The photo featured a group portrait of the typical people who inhabit the modern-day corporate office:
- The Type A sales guy
- The cool and steady senior executive
- The quiet admin
- The serious lawyer
- The young marketing hotshot
- The IT geek
- Who makes everyone's travel arrangements and thus constantly makes referrals to restaurants, hotels, and other area attractions to out-of-town visitors?
- Who has worked at the company for 25 years and knows exactly who to ask in order to get things done?
- Who makes sure you get 10 minutes of the CEO's time when her calendar is booked solid for six weeks in a row?
- Who knows where emergency funding can be found when everyone else is telling you "there's no budget"?
- Who do you ask when you need a decent pen?
