Internet today is an overflow.Information, relationships, interactions and experiences in general are as near and accessible as we can think.
This is a great advantage, but if you look at it closely it can turn into a problem. Having so many situations to deal with is difficult and we need to:

Prioritize

Our digital experience is all about giving priority. The search engine result page is nothing but a prioritized list of content. Our news feed on Facebook decides priorities and show updates to you accordingly. Twitter has a priority based on timing: latest updates show up first.
We need rules to define priorities but rules are - by definition - not adaptive. As the environment changes, rules don't change. And the scenario we live in is driven by change.
Prioritising is good but we don't need rules, we need to:

Trust

Our experience gets a lot more effective as soon as we learn to establish a relationship and trust peers who can select, suggest and promote content with us (and for us). While rules limit, trust empowers.
Try looking at everything that comes into your daily digital experience and see how much you weigh inputs that reach you from people you follow / relate / deal with.
You will need to:

Find gatekeepers

We shifted from an organized world (metaphor: folders) to a tagged world (metaphor: search). Now, gatekeepers are more important than search.
Think about it: knowledge is valuable, but it's nothing compared to the ability to find, share and connect. This applies to every detail of your digital user experience: it's more useful to look for people who can help you finding what you need than just asking and get an answer.
Have you found your gatekeepers?
Do you feel like your peers are many times more valuable than search and traditional - non-human ways?

Have you already found out who your influencers are?

You don't want them to do something good for you, you want them to do something great with you. The best way to have an influencer with you is... influencing.

You want to influence the influencer

There is nothing that can keep up with real motivation that someone gains spontaneously from your brand. Sponsored conversations might work fine (as soon as you disclose them openly and allow people to say whatever they want about your product / brand) but they are just one of the many way that can help a brand build influence on the first generation of influencers.

Short term: be relevant

You need to build awareness for your message. Remember you're working to build awareness for influencers: the messages and channels you use can be very different from the ones you'd activate when communicating to the your end consumer.
Select touch points, both digital and off-line, where you can meet people you want to influence and make yourself known. Someone does it by sending direct mailing, some organize events, some meet people they want to influence in person. It really doesn't matter how, but you need to get known.

Mid term: be useful

You're not trying to make a deal with people you want to influence: you're making something a lot harder. You want to be so important for them that they'll feel the need to share what you provide them with others.
This can be a content, a service, an experience. Anything that generates goodwill in the ones you need to influence.
You need to make an impact. It should be something that's useful for them and you'll be even more successful if that something is useful for people who are influenced by them.

Long term: be interesting

On the long term, you need to keep the influencers' attention, hoping they are willing to transfer this to people they influence.
Building something interesting isn't easy especially when it's not going to be a one - shot activity but a longer engagement.
In this case, don't think about something that's just interesting for people who you want to influence directly, think about something that they could use to be interesting for the people they influence.

Next generation is the key

As soon as you've understood how to influence the first generation by being relevant, you really need to shift your paradigm and think about the following generation of influencers to be effective.

Remember, everything in social media is powered by the act of giving. The best thing you can give someone is the ability to give to others.

So, influence the influencer by giving something that can be shared.

What's your take and your experience about it? I'd really love to read your point of view.

Photo credit: savannahgrandfather, dominicspics, nesster

Do you need to communicate an experience to your customers or prospect customers? Could there be anything better than having one of them telling all the other ones about it?
And what if this customer has a high reach and can easily get in touch with other customers?
Leveraging on the right people is fundamental to implement successful Social Influence strategies.

You need to find and involve an "influencer". But how do you do it?

In a Social Universe that's full of "creators" (in the meaning that Forrester gives to this word) it's not easy to find out who can be a great influencer and leave out the ones that just contribute to noise.

Reach: look for numbers

Let's put this the easy way: Look for people who - with their actions - cause the highest number of reactions by other people. This will surely give you a first indication of valuable consumers you can involve. Of course you should search for people active on topics related to your communication objectives. There are plenty of tools that allow you to do it. Just to mention one, Radian6 is a great tool to find influencers and rate them based on the number of reactions that they cause. But this is not enough.

Affinity: don't look for numbers

When looking for influencers, you must not forget that these people will help you generating a lead: it could be a subscription, a purchase, a dialogue or a thousand more actions but the influencer should push influenced to act.
So let's rethink it: are you looking for someone who can reach the highest number of users?
Probably not. The one you're looking for is a person that can make an impact on the followers and inspire them, move them to act and push them to spread the message he is carrying. Real influence is not measured (only) with numbers. It's fundamental to understand what kind of affinity an influencer has with the audience.
Communicate the signal and wipe out the noise by choosing the right people.

How do you do it?

You need to breathe the influencer's world, to be part of the audience for a while, to look at the influenced closely to understand how a person can influence others.

Start by the numbers.
Analyze the behaviour.
Look for strong interpersonal ties. Avoid weak ones.

Apply your Social Influence strategy.
How do you find your influencers? Share your experience
Can you think of some additional to do’s when seeking for the right influencers? Tell it in the comments

This blog is normally in English, but I know part of its audience speaks Italian. I decided to translate Jeremiah Owyang's "The Future of the Social Web: In Five Eras" into Italian because of this part of audience and pushed by Jeremiah's request. So if you speak Italian, here's the local version. If not, come back soon because Digital Ingredients will still be an English blog after this post.

Il fenomeno "Groundswell", in cui le persone - e non le istituzioni - creano connessioni tra loro, continuerà a svilupparsi. L'adesione a Social Network da parte dei consumer sta crescendo a ritmo incalzante i brand si avvicinano ai Social Media anche durante il periodo di recessione, quindi si può ipotizzare che questo settore si innovi velocemente per seguire il trend social. I clienti Forrester possono accedere a questo report, ma i risultati di questa ricerca sono riassunti nell'executive summary:

La "Social Experience" oggi è disomogenea perché i consumer hanno identità separate in ciascun network. Un semplice gruppo di tecnologie che consentono una "Portable Identity" darà presto la possibilità ai consumer di portare con sé le proprie identità - trasformando il marketing, l'eCommerce, il CRM e l'advertising. Le ID sono solo l'inizio di questa trasformazione in cui il web si evolverà passo dopo passo da siti social separati in una "Social Experience" condivisa. I consumer faranno riferimento ai propri "peer" per portare avanti decisioni di acquisto, con o senza la partecipazione dei brand. I consumer connessi da un punto di vista social rafforzeranno le community e assumeranno il potere che oggi è esclusivamente dei brand e dei sistemi di CRM; questo darà maggiore potere alle community nel definire la nuova generazione di prodotti.

Abbiamo scoperto che le tecnologie attivano i cambiamenti nell'adozione da parte dei consumer e i brand seguiranno il cambiamento, dando origine a cinque ondate distinte:

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Le Cinque Ere del Social Web:

1) Era delle Relazioni: le persone si connettono con altri e condividono;
2) Era delle Funzionalità: i Social Netowrk diventano come sistemi operativi;
3) Era della Colonizzazione: ogni esperienza può essere "Social";
4) Era del Contesto: contenuto personalizzato e accurato;
5) Era dell'Impatto Commerciale: le community definiscono i futuri prodotti e servizi;

Update: CRM Magazine pubblica contenuti sulle cinque ere: focalizziamoci sul visual..

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Timing delle Cinque Ere:

È importante notare che queste ere non sono sequenziali, ma si sovrappongono. Siamo entrati nell'era delle relazioni e ne abbiamo visto la maturità. Siamo entrati anche nell'era della funzionalità, anche se non ne abbiamo ancora colto la vera utilità più profonda. Stanno anche nascendo tendenze dell’era della colonizzazione, con le tecnologie come Facebook Connect. Presto queste identità "associate" daranno la possibilità alle persone di entrare nell'era del contesto social con contenuto social e personalizzato. Questo schema dimostra come possiamo prefigurarci lo sviluppo delle ere in futuro - con l'era dell'impatto commerciale come momento più remoto.

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Interviste con 24 tra le Top Social Companies:


La ricerca non viene effettuata "sotto vuoto", ecco perché Forrester ha condotto un’analisi qualitativa per scoprire cosa sia utile aspettarsi dal futuro. Forrester è giunta a queste conclusioni basandosi su interviste con executive, product manager e strategist di queste 24 società: Appirio, Cisco Eos, Dell, Facebook, Federated Media Publishing, Flock, Gigya, Google (Open Social/stack team), Graphing Social Patterns (Dave McClure), IBM (SOA Team), Intel (social media marketing team), KickApps, LinkedIn, Meebo, Microsoft (Live team), MySpace, OpenID Foundation (Chris Messina), Plaxo, Pluck, Razorfish, ReadWriteWeb, salesforce.com, Six Apart, and Twitter.

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Come possono prepararsi i brand

L'elemento interessante non è la visione del futuro ma ciò che il futuro riserva ai brand. Le società possono prepararsi in questo modo:

• Non esitare: Questi cambiamenti si sviluppano molto velocemente e saremo nella terza delle cinque ere entro la fine dell'anno. I brand dovrebbero prepararsi inserendo queste ere all'interno dei propri piano a breve termine per non rimanere indietro e non lasciare ai competitor la possibilità di connettersi con la community per primi.
• Prepararsi per la trasparenza: Gli utenti potranno navigare con i propri amici. È fondamentale che le società abbiano un piano. È importante prepararsi perché ogni pagina e prodotto potranno essere commentati dai clienti e visti dai prospect - anche se il brand sceglie di non partecipare attivamente.
• Connettersi con gli "Advocate":È utile focalizzarsi sui consumer "advocate", che influenzeranno i prospect e difenderanno dai detrattori. La loro opinione è molto più credibile di quella dei brand e, quando il potere si sposta verso la community, che inizierà a definire i prodotti, gli "advocate" diventeranno cruciali.
• Evolvere i sistemi enterprise: I sistemi di gestione enterprise dovranno essere connessi al social web. I social network e i loro partner stanno divenendo velocemente una fonte di informazione per il consumer e di lead generation. I CMS dovranno ereditare le caratteristiche "social".
• Distribuire il Corporate Website:Nel futuro più remoto, il contenuto raggiungerà i consumer e non viceversa. È utile prepararsi per frammentare il website corporate e distribuirlo nel sovial web. Sarà fondamentale permettere alle informazioni importanti di diffondersi presso le community; pescare dove si trovano i pesci.

Ecco il post originale di Jeremiah Owyang in inglese. Se in qualche modo questo post o la traduzione ti sono piaciuti, considera la possibilità di lasciare un commento e/o di iscriverti al feed RSS di Digital Ingredients.