Influencers vs. Collectors vs. Shouters

Nov 4

As many of you know by now I'm working hard at becoming a contestant on what [should] be the largest social media entertainment delivery on record: Focus Rally: America. Since that time I've decided to take a forefront position in the campaign by leading the Facebook group and running our team page with my partner Millo Aldea. What I've come to find out in this exercise is that there are three kinds of people that have come to the party.

Influencers: No surprise. They have a directive, goal and a voice. They talk of Autism awareness, Cancer awareness, their faith and others simply the lifestyle they wish to lead. But all of them respectively speak in a voice that is compelling and worth listening to. These are the people that move needles, what they say actually sticks in the minds of consumers creating a moment that places products/services (they talk about) into what is called the "consideration set."

The consideration set has no finality it simply adds, in this case the Ford Focus to the list of cars one might consider purchasing. This is all Ford or any manufacturer could ever ask for. The future of all social media for brands and advertiser is to get to this promised land.

Collectors: These are the people that seem to connect to everyone, have impressive followers in numbers but don't say anything. They post a couple of poorly thought out video clips and then allow ten of their friends to admin their boards because they don't really know what to say but "Like" me!

It's not that they lack passion or intelligence, it's just that social media may be the wrong medium for them to create influence. There folks may very well be better in person. The 'digital voice' is a fickle friend. You've all sent that email to your co-worker/spouse that get's the reply that accuses you of being an ass. Well the same stands true in all digital communications mediums. You in reading this post will digest the content in your own way and leave it (more than likely) in a way I had not presumed. That interaction and response is fundamentally what makes us human.

Shouters: Lastly, we have shouters. These are the people that 'carpet bomb' boards with a posse of people screaming that they're the best but giving zero reason why. The heavy lifting here was done initially by a group of influencers that pushed the snowball of shouters into a fury of "THEY GUNNA' ROCK THIS THING!" and leave most of us with as much brand equity in their race as driving pass an outdoor billboard for 'South Of The Border' for the 700th time at 100 mph.

I think everyone's hearts in the right place just having different levels of presumption on what moves people to be loyal. This is a game that requires a team of at home/work collective in order to win said competition, that being said it's easy to see who you should be aligning yourself with. In the remaining time prior to selection we'll see who gets the final knod. Will it be camera beauties? Geek fodder? Twitter Moguls? We'll just have to wait and see how many licks it takes to get to the center of the lollypop. But I can tell all contestants and followers that 'she/he with the most numbers' will not necessarily win, and that we all judge the quality of the audience before we presume they are gold.