{"id":4674,"date":"2011-07-20T21:52:09","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T21:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/?p=4674"},"modified":"2025-08-18T23:27:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T06:27:59","slug":"does-influence-really-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/does-influence-really-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Influence Really Matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"This article originally appeared on the AMEX Open Forum blog — \u00a0I wrote it to get people to seriously think about authority and influence.<\/em><\/p>\n

Currently, Small Business Trends<\/a> is running the SMBInfluencer’s Award; for which Survey Analytics has been nominated as an SMBInfluencer — you can see their nomination here and vote for them <\/a>as well as any other gurus, companies and media organizations.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about influence lately.\u00a0 It seems that I\u2019m not the only one.\u00a0 Influence isn\u2019t just for celebrities any more.\u00a0 Small business has gotten into the game as well.\u00a0 Mike Michalowicz wrote an article that talked about how you can grow your business by connecting with influencers.\u00a0 And Guy Kawasaki gives us a real life example of \u00a0how you can create a path for influencing behavior by setting up an environment for easy compliance.<\/p>\n

Why Influencers Matter to Small Business?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Influencers matter to your small business in the same way that segmentation matters to your marketing message \u2013 they simplify and cut the cost of communicating to large groups of people.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been conditioned to think of celebrities as influencers because a single mention from them can set product sales soaring.\u00a0 During the times of network media domination, small businesses rarely got to participate in this kind of promotion.\u00a0 But the advent of new media with its wide reaching social networks has suddenly made it possible (even easy) for small businesses to reach their target audience by investing their time rather than money.<\/p>\n

Move Over Oprah!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Social networks have made it possible for experts in any area of industry to have their voices heard and to gain a loyal and responsive audience.\u00a0 I\u2019m specifically talking about people like John Jantsch, the author of Duct Tape Marketing<\/a>, Robert Scoble, a technology evangelist from Microsoft and publisher of the Scobleizer blog and Anita Campbell, who reaches over 2,000,000 small business owners with her award winning publication Small Business Trends and is launching the first Small Business Influencer<\/a> event for 2011 this summer!<\/p>\n

The rise of the \u201cInternet Influencer\u201d has been both a blessing and a curse for those of us looking for good advice.\u00a0 On the one hand, there is no shortage of expert small business advice.\u00a0 And on the other hand, there are so many people in so many areas, that it\u2019s hard to find the people who can help you the most.\u00a0 So where is a small business owner supposed to go to figure out who the real movers and shakers of business are?<\/p>\n

How to Find Your Best Influencers<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a previous post here on Open Forum, I discussed how influence measuring apps are helping small business owners filter through the plethora of experts on any given topic.\u00a0 You can use apps like Mixtent or Klout to get you started in finding those people who are most active in their industries.\u00a0 But that\u2019s just the start.<\/p>\n

Finding and building real relationships with influencers requires time, patience and effort.<\/p>\n