Social Marketology: Improve Your Social Media Processes and Get Customers to Stay Forever by Ric Dragon

Author:Ric Dragon [Dragon, Ric]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Published: 2012-05-24T14:00:00+00:00

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CHECKLIST

Determine if the event has a hashtag or event page.

Find out who the players are and connect with them.

Start talking about the event early on—connect with everyone.

Be present in social media during and after the event.

Incentivize people to connect with your team at the event.

Find ways to commemorate participatory events.

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CHAPTER 8

CHASING THE WHALES

GOING FOR THE INFLUENCERS

THE LINCHPIN OF MARKETING

The study of influence has always been a pillar of marketing. But before the advent of social media, we were dealing with influence in an environment in which we were truly removed from our customers. It was as though we were stuffing a message into a bottle, tossing it into the ocean, and hoping it would wash up on some distant shore, where someone, the right someone, would pick it up and read the message. Thanks to social media, a whole boat full of those customers has arrived, and we’re all sitting down to one big beach party together. Suddenly, much of what has been learned about influence over the years has become even more relevant.

Too often it’s been the dark side of humanity that has precipitated the study of influence. We struggle to understand how 22-year-old Lynndie England from Frankfort, Kentucky, a onetime member of the Future Farmers of America, could have been influenced to take part in the sexual assault on prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004. Not too surprisingly, she said she felt that not participating would cost her the affection of a major influencer in her life, her boyfriend, one of the other guards encouraging her participation. We wonder how the 909 members of the Jonestown Massacre of 1978 could possibly have been led to take their own lives, in some cases after having killed their own children.

Influence. The word has at its root a suggestion of a flowing in. It has its origins in astrology, with the notion that a god or other unseen powers are affecting life and destiny. The fourteenth-century scholar Themon Judaeus described influence as “a certain quality or power diffused through the whole world,” noting that unlike light, influence was capable of moving through metal and stone.1 In the old movies, Bela Lugosi’s Dracula could simply look into his victims’ eyes and bid them to do his will. That was some serious influence. If only it were that easy. One way or another, in wielding influence, we aim to get someone to do what we want him to do.

Which is why influence is a linchpin in marketing. How is it that a person comes to buy a Honda as opposed to a Toyota, or a Pepsi instead of a Coke? Why does Mrs. Smith at 323 Elm Street vote for Senator Jones instead of Senator Miller? The answers are rarely simple. Think of a chessboard as an analogy: a board bearing a mere 64 spaces and holding just 32 pieces yields thousands of possible openings and variations. Similarly, there are endless possible ways that people bump up against information and influence.

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