“Influencer” marketing* is trend worth following.

Social tools on the Internet are only making it easier for individuals to share  with others and influence their habits (what they buy, do, believe in). This expands our concept of a marketing term called “influencer marketing,” where those we know have an impact on our lives.

Pinterest is an obvious example. Another is a new player, Luvocracy, which launched recently. It was founded by two executives with deep ties to Direct Sales: Roger Barnett (Chairman & CEO of the Direct Sales leader, Shaklee Corporation) and his business partner from Google. Read more about their concept in this TechCrunch article:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/16/luvocracy-raises-11m-from-kleiner-perkins-google-ventures-and-others-to-master-ecommerce-and-social-recommendations/

In marketing, we use “influencer marketing” as one of the tools in our marketing mix. But one wonders, could the concept grow to supersede other tools in the marketing mix? For example, will press become less important if the influencers in our own lives are easier for us to access and/or more credible for us? I’ll be eager to continue the dialogue with the “influencers” in my own life – my FB/LI connections, and beyond.

* How is it defined?

This w/e, I wanted to learn more about the concept, so enjoyed dipping into Wikipedia and otherwise refreshed my memory about the types of Word of Mouth marketing that have evolved over time, and what people are saying about them.

I also appreciated a piece written in 2009 called “Word of Mouth and Influencer Marketing Literature Review Summary” by David Roberts. He traces the concept back to the 1950’s and defines this concept as “influencing the mass[es] through the influence of a few….”