How Marketing Influencers Have Changed

In their publication "Top 12 Digital Predictions for 2012", Milward Brown's Global Futures Group described how marketing influencers have changed; "In the past, key influencers have been limited to traditional advertising, consumer promotions (i.e. coupons, sampling,etc.); trade promotions (i.e. price reductions, displays,etc.); and word-of-mouth from family and close friends. With the advent of social media, our influencers have changed, broadening in both reach and scope. Microsoft's Bing search engine can pull in a user's friends' Facebook likes and display them with search results. Even total strangers can now impact the choices we make by leaving online comments and reviews." Social media offers an entirely new way for businesses and organizations to form a relationship with customers and to leverage customer loyalty to attract prospects. As explained by author Robert Cialdini in his book "Influence:Psychology of Persuasion", the idea of tapping into the wisdom of the crowd is based on a principle of social influence. Instead of making a decision (such as what brand to purchase or where to eat dinner) based on the rational measures of traditional economics, we instead turn to outside influences. Cialdini calls this social proof, defined as "one means we use to determine which is correct is to find out what other people think is correct."