How social media influences trust in advertising
There has been an explosion of user generated content, and as a result, consumers have a new way of assessing brands, products and services.
Nielsen’s 2009 Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries and covers degrees of trust consumers have for advertisers/brands.
90% of consumers surveyed trusted recommendations from people they knew personally
70% trusted opinions from other consumers posted online
70% trusted brand websites
Key takeaway: “Strangers” opinions posted online offer as much trust to the consumer as the company website.
For companies not engaging in the social media marketing conversation with their customers, they miss out on a literal world of opinion, market research, feedback and customer service opportunities.
Those companies who value the opinions and expressions of their customers by displaying them on the company website have the most to gain.
Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation
A central idea in marketing and diffusion research is that influentials—a minority of individuals who influence an exceptional number of their peers—are important to the formation of public opinion. Here we examine this idea, which we call the “influentials hypothesis,” using a series of computer simulations of interpersonal influence processes. Under most conditions that we consider, we find that large cascades of influence are driven not by influentials but by a critical mass of easily influenced individuals. Although our results do not exclude the possibility that influentials can be important, they suggest that the influentials hypothesis requires more careful specification and testing than it has received.
The structure and function of complex networks
Inspired by empirical studies of networked systems such as the Internet, social networks, and biological networks, researchers have in recent years developed a variety of techniques and models to help us understand or predict the behavior of these systems. Here we review developments in this field, including such concepts as the small-world effect, degree distributions, clustering, network correlations, random graph models, models of network growth and preferential attachment, and dynamical processes taking place on networks.
Sharing some simple tips for companies launching online customer communities about how to cultivate “superusers” — that group of active users from which influencers and advocates can emerge.
PRE-LAUNCH
Identify superuser candidates among known advocates, online or off
Identify existing online communities (if any) to reach out to
Create “superuser-friendly” user guidelines and moderation policies.
LAUNCH
Invite known advocates to preview community, create seed content, and provide feedback.
Add elements to community structure that allow superusers to identify you (welcome forum) and to identify themselves (feedback forum).
Develop a rank and reputation structure to reward and incent superusers.
POST-LAUNCH, FIRST 30 TO 90 DAYS:
Identify emerging superusers as they move up the ranks and provide positive feedback.
Acknowledge their suggestions and ideas, without making commitments.
Tune reputation system based in real user data.
POST-LAUNCH, 90 DAYS AND BEYOND
Review participation history and refine superuser group down to supporters.
Create a private forum accessible only to superusers.
Create a specification for the superuser program — criteria for selection, term of membership, etc.
Reward and empower superusers with additional permissions and privileges on the community.
Explore other opportunities for rewarding and growing the superuser group (invitation to focus groups, participation in beta tests, previews of products, recognition at conferences, in-person meetings, etc.)
The Dynamics of Social Influence: A New Perspective and Agenda
In this blog post, Don Bulmer asks a number of fairly broad questions regarding how social media influences communication:
- How are other governments and politicians successfully using or abusing social media for policy and political advancement?
- What are the implications of social media on politics in the future (2020 and 2030)?
- How has social media challenged governments and politicians through new rules of open/public scrutiny toward trust, transparency and accountability?
- What are the social media tools and techniques that successful non-profit organizations/institutions use to advance awareness and motivate people, governments and businesses to take action and affect positive change (giving of time and money), creation of policy, etc.?
- How has social media impacted the nature of philanthropic design and social responsibility (local and global)?
- How do people use social media and social networks to address personal concerns and support better decision making?
- How has social media affected trust and relationships between people and organizations?
- What are the implications to future generations of individuals (who today share everything about themselves) on politics and business?
- What are the most effective tools used by people to influence change in business and government?
- What new syndication and business models have emerged for mainstream media today – to adapt to the phenomena of the social web?
- How has the influence of mainstream media changed as a result of social media?
- How has social media and social networks affected professional/business decision-making?
- What approaches and tools are business using to ‘listen,’ ‘interact’ and ‘engage’ more with their core audiences to improve the way they do business?
- How as social media affected and transformed traditional marketing and communication beliefs and strategies?
The article discussed the following (in the context of Online Communities):
- How organizations are attempting to identify influencers and elites
- The various tactics for engaging influential members
- How to spot these influencers and elites (a more manual process)
- How to build relationships with the individuals
- What available algorithms and metrics there are around influencer identificiation
- How to tabulate those metrics manually
- What to do with Community Volunteers
Online Community Tribe Round Up
Asking the initial question, What are the top three things you do or wish you could do for your community “influencers”?, Gail Williams collects a number of posts concerning Online Community Influencers
How to Manage Multiple Personalities and Relationships Online
An individual may maintain multiple personas online – for privacy, security or just plain forgetfulness. Organizations have an interest in resolving those personas, but when is it safe or advisable to do so and do the individuals have a say in the matter?
1 response so far ↓
Adrian Chan // July 19, 2009 at 5:46 pm |
Very interesting post, and I’d love to see the research. The crux of your approach is this:
“Under most conditions that we consider, we find that large cascades of influence are driven not by influentials but by a critical mass of easily influenced individuals.”
There’s no arguing with this in network terms, in audience behavior terms, in sociological or cultural terms.
However, that systems reproduction or social network effects, which might produce these results, is not the only possible explanation and certainly not an adequately causal explanation from social perspectives.
That is, if user behavior is viewed from a user centric perspective.
To wit, there are some psychological explanations that might be worth mapping to your research. They would involve the motivation some “easily influenced” individuals may have in associating with celebrity, in identifying with mentors, experts, and leaders, in being seen in their company, and in being seen communicating about, to, or through them (e.g. @replies, retweets).
These effects can be covered by communication-theoretical arguments. And they may have implications for an approach to building or populating social networks organically.
For example, incentives for expert presence and visibility, constraints on communication, channeling of audiences topically or culturally, and other social architectural approaches may be just as valuable in “growing” an online culture as the influential/influenced pairing recommended here. (And frankly, would amount to the same thing but explained differently).
cheers,
adrian