Will social media make a difference for your campaign?

Research from the Marketing Science Institute (Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Diffusion) gives some guidance on when a social media focus may make a dramatic difference for your campaign. My take home messages were:

• think about whether the topic and the audience lends itself to social contagion
• focus your efforts on individuals who are highly active in the area, or who are seen as key influencers (even by themselves!)

The authors' conclusions included:


Social marketing will only have a major 'contagion' effect if at least one of the following applies:

1. The nature of the topic means the target audience would seek other people's opinions about it; &/or
2. The target audience are by nature susceptible to peer group influence (eg, teenagers); &/or
3. The target audience are susceptible to 'keeping up with the neighbours' urges; &/or 
4. Traditional media is only going to have a minor effect.

If one of these applies, then investing in a social media focus on key influencers can be worthwhile (in this study, converting one key influencer was just as valuable as direct pitches to 185 'average' people). Each of the following were valuable influencers:

1. People who are already highly active in the specific area
2. People who self-report themselves as 'key influencers'
3. People who are referred to as key influencers by normal members of the target audience (identifiable by linkages)

The authors (Raghuram Iyengar, Christophe Van den Bulte, and Thomas W. Valente) looked at the real-world effects of opinion leaders on the adoption of a new product (a pharmaceutical).