I recall reading Malcom Gladwell's description of "Social Connectors" from back in 2000, and realising it accurately describes a few of my friends/acquaintances:
"Connectors are the people in a community who know large numbers of people and who are in the habit of making introductions. A connector is essentially the social equivalent of a computer network hub. They usually know people across an array of social, cultural, professional, and economic circles, and make a habit of introducing people who work or live in different circles."
I think today's "influencers" are similar but perhaps more shallow versions of Gladwell's "Connectors".
I know if _I_ ask a question social media, I'll mostly get an answer if any of my friends know the answer. But when - for example - jwz asks "Dear Lazyweb", he'll get the guy who wrote the linux kernel subsystem or who runs the datacenter he's having problems with explain what's going wrong (often after having fixed it).
The concept of some people being well connected enough to reach and influence a valuable number of important-in-some-context people is 100% "real". (Whether an attractive blonde showing off a specific brand of sunglasses or luggage in Instagram qualifies is questionable, part of me wants to say "Nope!", but I don't make my living trying to convince people to buy my brand of sunglasses or luggage, so what do I know?)
"Connectors are the people in a community who know large numbers of people and who are in the habit of making introductions. A connector is essentially the social equivalent of a computer network hub. They usually know people across an array of social, cultural, professional, and economic circles, and make a habit of introducing people who work or live in different circles."
I think today's "influencers" are similar but perhaps more shallow versions of Gladwell's "Connectors".
I know if _I_ ask a question social media, I'll mostly get an answer if any of my friends know the answer. But when - for example - jwz asks "Dear Lazyweb", he'll get the guy who wrote the linux kernel subsystem or who runs the datacenter he's having problems with explain what's going wrong (often after having fixed it).
The concept of some people being well connected enough to reach and influence a valuable number of important-in-some-context people is 100% "real". (Whether an attractive blonde showing off a specific brand of sunglasses or luggage in Instagram qualifies is questionable, part of me wants to say "Nope!", but I don't make my living trying to convince people to buy my brand of sunglasses or luggage, so what do I know?)