Grouped: How small groups of friends are the key to influence on the social web

5. The myth of the “influentials”

Highly connected does not mean highly influential

Influence is hard to measure

Over the last ten years, marketers have often focused on finding people who disproportionately impact how information is spread, often called “influentials.” Much of this thinking was driven by Malcolm Gladwell’s best-selling book, The Tipping Point, where he describes The Law of the Few. This law states that there are a small number of very influential people in society, and if you reach and influence them, they will influence hundreds, thousands, and even millions of others. Gladwell characterizes “influentials” as highly connected, highly persuasive, and viewed as credible in their field.¹

As we saw earlier, this focus on “influentials” ...