The document discusses the power of influencers on social media and online reviews. It notes that consumers share 500 billion opinions online annually, with 60% on Facebook and 16% of users generating 80% of posts. This indicates that a few key influencers can significantly impact markets. It also predicts that $50 billion additional dollars will be spent on online advertising in the next three years as marketing budgets shift online. The author argues that businesses need to figure out how to leverage influencers and platforms like Facebook and Twitter to avoid becoming obsolete.

1. Where’s the Beef?
Do Influencers
Really Matter?
In the past few weeks I have been traveling and visiting with potential clients,
investors and marketing executives. I am struck by the skepticism that surrounds
the POWER 3rd party influencers exercise over the Internet and those who surf it.
In this month’s Harvard Business Review there is a great article on how Social
Media is impacting Branding and the new rules governing it. While reading I
stumbled across a few interesting factoids relating to the power of online reviews:
500 Billion- that is the number of “opinions/impressions’ consumers share with
others online about products and services annually. I don’t know about you but
that is an “Insanely” BIG number! These are not ad agencies pumping out
commercials that reach an audience of 500 billion, nor magazines that are passed
around and read by 500 billion people (each person on the planet 8 times).
Even more amazing is that 60% of those impressions/opinions are shared on
Facebook and 16% of those users generated 80% of the messages and posts.
Do you think the notion is valid that a few KEY INFLUENCERS can drive a
market? I sure do. It is mind blowing to think that so few can wield such power
over one platform.

2. What’s more startling is a report I just read from Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley
on the amount of marketing and advertising funds invested in the Internet
Ad/Marketing Channel as being woefully below the relative time spent on the
Internet. She predicts that in the next three years $50 Billion in additional funds
will be directed to on-line advertising tripling the current amount spent!
YOU, ME, EVERYONE will be obsolete very quickly if we are not trying to
figure out how to leverage KEY INFLUENCERS and social platforms like
Facebook and Twitter. At SocialMatica we are testing the top channels to
determine the ones that click with our audience and passing that information along
to our clients.
Stay tuned for my next post….I am going to finally tackle Twitter the real-time
information network and how it will change the dynamics of interactive TV
viewing, event participation and product testing.
Jim
Facebook.com/socialmatica
@jimweldonjr
Posted in: Social Media Investment