Under the Influencers (Ep 35)

May 7th, 2019 · 46 mins 10 secs

About this Episode

Links from the show:

Key Quotes:
_An influencer is someone who has won the respect, interest, and attention of other subject matter experts in a particular field or context. [At Sprinklr], we measure that through analysis of the Twitter follow relationship through a specific model called Social Graph Analysis. _-Marshall Kirkpatrick

[If] you’re just looking at follower counts, then it turns into “Oh! They must be an influencer! They have 110,000 followers.” And… maybe! but if it’s not consolidated into one [topic] space and half of them are bots, what’s it going to do for you? -Rachel Happe

To be a deep influencer, you have to engage in dialogue with people. You have to be able to challenge them effectively, which means you also have to be supportive… meaning, if they don’t know that you’re supportive and you challenge them, then you’re just an asshole and you’re not going to change their opinion about anything. That requires a relationship and you have to be open yourself to being changed. You can’t approach it with “I’m going to proclaim my expertise to the world and they are going to sit back and listen!” Relationships are influence. -Rachel Happe

_In order to be an influencer, you have to be willing to be influenced. You have to have the capability and flexibility to say “Yes, I’m going to promote this product or work for this company, or work with this project…” but at the same time you have to be open to the idea that things might not be perfect in the world. _-PJ Hagerty

Words are hard. Saying “In my experience…” or “In my expertise, that doesn’t look right”, which is different than saying “That’s wrong.” -Rachel Happe

_It’s the gentle way to continue a conversation! The first is saying “Lead me to your way of thinking… help me understand” whereas “You’re wrong” ends the conversation. _-PJ Hagerty

The main difference I’ve seen between people who have a lot of followers and people who are influencers is that influencers are able to understand the power that their platform has and use that to engage people, to encourage conversations, to encourage diversity, to encourage greater thinking about issues. -Mary Thengvall

_A big part of the value of these thought leaders and influencers that we haven’t touched on is not so much in the way they can move the outside world and the web that we’re all a part of… but there’s a huge source of value [for businesses] that comes from connecting with these thought leaders and influencers that can be derived from learning from them. _-Marshall Kirkpatrick

_I would suggest that there’s an opportunity there (when there’s a “flash” of influence that catapults someone onto a platform with many Twitter followers) to build a relationship. There may be a signal-to-noise ratio that you need to be cautious of – perhaps only 1/10 of those people will be able to sustain the platform – but early access and development of a relationship, especially with someone that you like, who winds up growing into a position of thought leadership, means more time spent around their work and a more impactful relationship. _-Marshall Kirkpatrick

In order to draw people to a community you need to figure out who influences them. If their top influencers aren’t also in the community, those individuals aren’t going to be aware of your new community, let alone interested in joining. -Rachel Happe

Checkouts:
Marshall

Rachel

PJ

Mary

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