Dear Rage Against the Machine,
Which “Machine” exactly were you raging against? Was it the Sony corporation – the parent company of Epic Records, the machine that produced and distributed your albums?
I’m officially sick of the term KOL. For the uninitiated, KOL is a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) that stands for Key Opinion Leader. As a digital marketing strategist, I hear this term (as well as thought leader, KOL’s less hip counterpart) incessantly—from clients and colleagues alike. The conventional (old) school of thought has taught the top down marketers that the secret sauce to any successful marketing initiative lies in influencing the influencer, or KOL.
Social media and communities have further democratized information which has had a direct impact on exactly how much influence (depending on the audience) a KOL has. In an age of skepticism, where consumers are leery of anyone occupying once trusted positions of power, the sway of the influencers is seeing a downward trend. Steve Rubel recently highlighted some specific findings from the 2008 Edelman Trust Barometer that indicates consumers prefer to hear from people like themselves rather than KOLs.
The question of targeting super nodes vs. smaller groups is all coming down to trust. While the marketplace – both marketers and publishers – continue to focus on reach, they are missing the big picture. Trust is by far a more important metric, one that clearly rules when it comes to influence.
Does this mean that the endorsement of influential personalities has lost its value? Absolutely not; the backing of influential thought leaders can certainly attract attention. Based on the aforementioned trust report, I would encourage marketers to place less emphasis on the so-called thought leaders. Treat each and every customer as if they are that coveted KOL.
As a consumer, whom are you more likely to trust—someone you’ve never met who is likely getting compensated for his or her product endorsement, or a peer who shares your tastes and interests, is genuinely excited about the product and isn’t getting paid to have an opinion.
Today, Jeremiah Owyang, web strategist and Senior Analyst at Forrester Research posted his presentation on online community best practices on his blog, Web Strategy by Jeremiah (one of my daily reads). While looking at this without narration is not nearly as beneficial, the presentation does include some excellent data and advice for any business interested in participating in social media/networking websites.
I’ve embedded the presentation below for your viewing pleasure.
You may wonder why a company like Forrester whose product is essentially their intellectual capital, would allow this to be posted publicly. As Jeremiah effectively states in the post, “Information can’t be hidden, it simply hasn’t been published online.”
Thanks for sharing; this is good stuff.
Renowned music journalist/pundit, Bob Lefsetz, recently authored a newsletter/blog post entitled, The Death of Cool. Toward the end of the rant he articulates his point most clearly:
We’ve been living with a class of professional, holier-than-thou trendsetters, who believe they determine what is cool. Cool is not so important anymore. Attention is king. And the longer you can keep someone’s attention, the more you’re going to win in the twenty first century.
Yes, attention is king; the hard part is capturing and maintaining people’s attention. MTV has fried most of our synapses to the point that we can’t focus on anything for more than three seconds. Hell, I’ve probably checked my email twelve times since I began writing this blog post. Everything is dumbed down, sound bites, quick hits, bulleted lists. Style has beaten Substance to a bloody pulp.
The current presidential race is no exception. Barack Obama, the candidate inspiring millions of people with his messages of “Change” and “Hope” is a perfect example of someone who understands the importance of attention. Obama is long on attention, but short on content. What change is he encouraging Americans to hope for? Even though many cannot articulate his legislative policies or programs, his ambiguous feel-good message resonates with so many of us; he has our undivided attention.
This is not to say that content has lost all of its importance. Good content certainly helps attract and maintain attention, but content alone is no longer enough of a draw. Politicians, musicians, filmmakers, bloggers and marketers need a differentiator—a hook—to grab the audience’s attention and draw them in. And once you’ve attracted that fickle audience, make sure to keep your message concise and do everything in your power to keep their attention. They’re already looking for the next shiny, new thing to glom on to.