One area of public relations and social media that is definitely been discussed in the online community as well as in both the professional and research arenas is the discussion on how to detect the online influencers that people are following, and how to predict who will be the next one. Forrester Research just came out with a study that discusses the impact of mass media influencers and why businesses have to be aware of who these individuals are.
The power of peer influence needs to be considered for various reasons, but public relations professionals have to be aware of these individuals both in their research and professional practices. Social media influencers are powerful and legitimate and are perceived as having strong reputation and personality characteristics.
"Social Influencers"
Earlier this year, I actually did a study that focused on what are the personality characteristics that people were assigning to specific social media influencers, and how businesses can use this knowledge to predict the next social media influencer in their respective industry. The four social media influencers that were used in this study included: Brian Solis, Deirdre Breakenridge, Jeremy Owyang, and Charlene Li. As a result, a social influencer prototype was constructed following Block’s Q-Sort technique (Block, 2008) among 32 participants. It was a very interesting study to do and I hope to continue with this research in public relations and social media.
Public relations professionals need to be able to identify these influential spokespersons and maximize the benefits of relationships with these individuals. Research looking at the impact of social media influencers in the realm of Web 2.0 should be further explored.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
Reference
Block, J. (2008). The Q-sort in character appraisal: Encoding subjective impressions of persons quantitatively. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
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