Influencers is becoming the new viral

Nails scratching across a chalkboard. Major league hitters that don’t protect the plate with two strikes. My sister watching the movie Grease every day for a whole year (that one’s for you, sis).

We’ve all got our pet peeves. Those are some of mine above. But when it comes to communications, one has always stood out to me — use of the word viral. For the record, a video or story goes viral. You CANNOT create a viral video or story. There, much better. Except recently I’m seeing a new “viral” begin to show its face and boast the pet peeve moniker -  the word influencers.

I remember the first time I heard the word. It was in a presentation from Brian Solis. He was talking about how in addition to a media list, he had researched an influencer list for a client. I remember how he mapped it out and showed all the different platforms where these influencers — influencers that were not universally influential, but influential for his client — had presences. Blogs, social networks, message boards. I remember how long he said it took to research. More than 50 hours.

That’s what influencers meant to me the first time I heard it. A new audience we should be researching for our clients and an evolution to aspire to as a communicator who wants to offer the best counsel to his/her clients. But lately, instead of saying influencers, we might as well call it “magic.” Too many communicators just throw out the word because it has cache when talking about media lists, sites where they buy ads or people who use social media. They make it sound like an easy fix, an abracadabra.

Have you ever seen Chris Rock’s Robitussin stand up bit? He goes on and on about how the only medicine they had in the house when he was a kid was Robitussin. Have asthma? Get some tussin. Broke your leg? Pour some tussin on it. Run out of Robitussin? Put some water in the bottle, shake it up, more tussin. The bit is hilarious. But the way communicators are talking about influencers lately — like they are their own version of Chris Rock’s Robitussin — is not.

To be honest, this “evolution” really pisses me off because the word influencers had a chance to be different and to mean something. Instead, we can now just hang it up on the wall of every Applebee’s, Chili’s or TGI Fridays next to every other bicycle, sports team picture and hometown hero award. Unless…we can provide some clarity around the term, better define it and actually make it stand for something. In the interest of keeping the faith (thank you, Bon Jovi), let’s give it a try.

Influencers are:

• A targeted group of people who have built up a following or community that consists of a company’s target customer. For example, if research shows your ideal customers are moms, then mom bloggers might be a place to start looking for your brand’s  influencers.
• Likely publishers or pontificators. IOW, these people have to have built up their audiences in some way and it is most likely by publishing content or by the ideas they bring to the table in an offline setting.
• All over the place, including within the boundaries of how we define media and outside of those boundaries. Which means they are all over the Web, as Solis pointed out.
• The best, most trusted word-of-mouth advocates for your brand. And those who want to work with you.
• People you find, connect with only after extensive research BY A PERSON. My friend Chuck Hemann has a lot more insight to offer on this point here.
• Media, bloggers and individuals who are a fit with the audience(s) you are trying to reach.

Influencers are not:

• All media. Or bloggers. Or everyone that appears in a mass list you pull from a media service because they write for a big-name paper, blog site or a local outlet.
• The people an influence tool like Klout, mPACT or Traackr spits out.
• A targeted site you buy ads on. Sorry, ads are not influential. People are. Ads expose. People influence.
• Any customer who mentions your brand and shows up in a listening audit. These people could end up on your influencer list. But you have to dig deeper than a listening audit and see if these folks actually have built up communities that correlate with your target market.
• Always the same. They change regularly and our lists need to change to keep up with them. At BlogWorld, all three members of the analytics panel advised reviewing/updating your influencer lists at least once a month.
• Jargon. Buzz words. Numbers. Influencers are people. They’re an audience companies have always been in search of. And now they have more visibility and more value to companies than ever before because of the proliferation of online WOM. But they are still - and will always be — people. People that have built community made up of your target audience.

These days when I hear the word viral, I cringe. The word influencers used to make me smile. Because when I heard it, I thought of a new way communicators could actually be strategic and drive business results instead of going after phantom numbers.

But more and more, influencers is becoming like Milli Vanilli’s Blame it on the Rain. It was really cool at first. Kind of made your head nod. And then there was the lipsynching fiasco and it all came tumbling down. Now, no one talks about that song anymore. Plenty of people still talk about influencers, but very few talk about them in the right way, which means they might as well not be talking about influencers at all.

Here’s to hoping we can change the conversation. And that influencers doesn’t become a pet peeve or one-hit wonder.

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