On Influence and Social Circles

Rob Clark, July 8 2010

Whilst Fast Company is busy mistaking pyramid schemes for influence in a noisy and much discussed way, quietly making the rounds has been a fascinating presentation by Paul Adams, User Experience Research at Google, in which real world social network and the influence within is examined.

The truth is we do behave differently offline than on, where we have loose collections of networks with tenuous ties. The concept of ‘friends’ as presented by Facebook is a broken experience and the notion of ‘influence’ is far more complex an issue than simply who can push the most people to click a link. What it all means is that we are nowhere near an end game in terms of social media marketing. If the changes and opportunities seen to date seemed to come fast and furious, hold on tight because this particular roller coaster hasn’t even left the station.