Guest Post: Do you have influence…online?

Guest post by: Daniel Prager is an interactive marketing consultant at The Ocean Agency, an interactive marketing firm in Chicago, IL. He also is a contributor to Ploked. You can learn more about the rest of his online presence here and find  him on Twitter.
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Is “influence” is the new “leverage?” The phenomenal success of Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith have catapulted the word influence to the top of the business jargon heap.

But what is influence? And, more importantly, how do we determine who really has influence in the world of online communities and social media?

I break down online influence into four categories: 1) The celebrity, 2) The early adopter and social media “expert”, 3) The king/queen of niches, 4) The everyday/infrequent user of social media.

Type 1, the celebrity
This category covers athletes, entertainers, rock star chefs, etc. We all have favorite celebrities and I personally love to see them humanized and approachable. The celebrities that succeed in their online communities are those who use it as a platform to express their personality and interact with fans. Rick Bayless, the recent winner of Top Chef Masters on Bravo and owner of Frontera Grill and Topalabampo in Chicago, answers fan questions via Twitter daily and you truly get a sense of his personality through his Twitter presence. Another great example comes from All-Star receiver Larry Fitzgerald’s Facebook fan page. I love when he surprised a fan who calls him out for not responding on Twitter:

How to determine which celebrities have influence: It is not necessarily all about numbers
Followers are important, but a vibrant community is even more important. Chad OchoCinco’s Twitter was the impetus for the NFL’s new social media guidelines. Look for celebrities like Ocho Cinco that that are community builders rather than solely self-promoters.

Type 2, the early adopter
These people are fascinated by the way that social media is revolutionizing the way we communicate, and spend most of their time on social media talking about social media. Examples: Pete Cashmore, Richard Scoble, and Guy Kawasaki are our online celebrities.

How to determine which early adopters / social media experts have influence: Content and interaction
Is their content unique? Exclusive? Are they just spewing out links and trying to monetize their social media habit, or are they generally engaging with their followers? The publications, blogs, and industry knowledge a lot of these social media experts have is extremely potent, but I think that the most powerful influence these users have comes from their personal rather than professional branding. Think about it this way, you might check a site out if it was published on Mashable , but wouldn’t it be more interesting if Ben Parr tweeted about his favorite site that didn’t make it on Mashable? That’s influence.

Type 3, the king or queen of a niche
I dub Heather B. Armstrong the queen of Mommy Bloggers. She has an active reader base who have a personal connection to her life. Heather may have the most loyal personal fans on the Web. You can witness the power of her community in any of their comments. A comment on her recent post about running into Peter Frampton:

This member of Heather’s community demonstrates a connection. She has showed Heather’s blog to her children and brought Dooce directly into her home. How many of us have the influence to be brought into peoples’ homes?

Which kings and queens of niches have influence?
In many cases,their influence is proportional to the influence of the niche they write in. Mommy bloggers are a powerful niche, but does the king/queen of closet organization have the same influence? Probably not.

Type 4, the eveyrday/infrequent user of social media
Here’s some social networking data that illustrates pretty much everyone from your neighbor to your grandma uses social media in some form. However, many of these users are passive, rather than active. They may comment on stories and follow people’s lives but they are not using social media to grow their personal or professional brand. So what “influence” does the everyday social media user have?

A direct influence on their networks, family and friends that they use social networking and online communities to stay in touch with.

How to determine which everyday/infrequent user of social media has influence: It’s difficult
My opinion: Someone who genuinely loves to share, truly for the love of personal interaction. A person who could brand themselves as an expert, but instead decides to focus on connections with a close circle of friends.

Online influence is complex and when we break down types of online users we see nuances.

Have I missed a category? I’d love to know what you think about different types of social media influencers.