Brandon Prebynski, a friend and respected web geek, recently posted a question on Facebook that generated discussion about the power of influence versus fame in the social media community. When asked about preference between influence and fame, the majority picked influence as shown below:
Brandon also references a related article posted by Mashable that talks about celebrities and their followers' influence in the social media community. There is a distinct difference between fame and influence shown by the data, and the study concludes that celebrities' Twitter followers have zero influence. While some might find this surprising, I found this data to be predictable and accurate. Let me explain why.
As you can see by the responses to Brandon's great question, influence was picked by most of the population sample. One responder, however, brings up an important point: do fame and influence come with the other attached? When reviewing the data produced by Mashable, a majority of all the celebrities' followers had 1 to 0 influence, while social media heavyweights' followers had an average authority of 4.4. If you are looking at this data and accepting Sysomos's definitions of influence and authority, then the answer to the question would be no. With certain topics, such as fashion, media, and other popular trends, I would be inclined to say that celebrities are the influence. But either way, I believe that, like the Mashable article insinuates, "celebrities are bound to attract mainstream followers less interested in their own Twitter follower counts and more consumer with their celebrity obsessions."
On the other hand, look at the people who follow the social media heavyweights. They are generally interested and are active in the social media community, own or manage businesses, provide quality content, and are actively promoting or commenting on their blogs, tweets, social media networks. Furthermore, not everyone might agree with what the social media gurus have to say, but they still comment and respond to their content anyways. Their followers engage and provide opinions, while celebrity followers spectate and blindly follow.
When asked if I preferred fame or influence, I did not hesitate to answer. Influence gives you the opportunity to have a voice, to be an agent of change. Influence can come with fame, but I believe that there is also an element of emptiness to being famous. Most celebrities are given face time, but their opinions are rarely the topic of conversation. (This depends on the topic/situation, but their opinions may not be respected because of their "celebrity" status). At the end of the day, the important thing is to use your fame or influence to benefit others.
So which would you choose? Fame or Influence?
As you can see by the responses to Brandon's great question, influence was picked by most of the population sample. One responder, however, brings up an important point: do fame and influence come with the other attached? When reviewing the data produced by Mashable, a majority of all the celebrities' followers had 1 to 0 influence, while social media heavyweights' followers had an average authority of 4.4. If you are looking at this data and accepting Sysomos's definitions of influence and authority, then the answer to the question would be no. With certain topics, such as fashion, media, and other popular trends, I would be inclined to say that celebrities are the influence. But either way, I believe that, like the Mashable article insinuates, "celebrities are bound to attract mainstream followers less interested in their own Twitter follower counts and more consumer with their celebrity obsessions."
On the other hand, look at the people who follow the social media heavyweights. They are generally interested and are active in the social media community, own or manage businesses, provide quality content, and are actively promoting or commenting on their blogs, tweets, social media networks. Furthermore, not everyone might agree with what the social media gurus have to say, but they still comment and respond to their content anyways. Their followers engage and provide opinions, while celebrity followers spectate and blindly follow.
When asked if I preferred fame or influence, I did not hesitate to answer. Influence gives you the opportunity to have a voice, to be an agent of change. Influence can come with fame, but I believe that there is also an element of emptiness to being famous. Most celebrities are given face time, but their opinions are rarely the topic of conversation. (This depends on the topic/situation, but their opinions may not be respected because of their "celebrity" status). At the end of the day, the important thing is to use your fame or influence to benefit others.
So which would you choose? Fame or Influence?
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