2009 is the year of influence – tap the power (on 19 May)!

This is the year influence shifts to center stage. Wherever I go people are talking about influence. Meanwhile companies are rapidly shifting their marketing resources to tap the power of influence.

There are several primary drivers for the rise of influence:

* The democratization of media, which gives everyone a channel to propagate theirs or others’ opinions.

* Peer trust, which places far greater faith in individuals than corporate advertising and marketing.

* The ongoing fragmentation of mass media, which takes away the power of traditional marketing channels.

* The aggregation of social media, which gives a far stronger voice to the many individual conversations.

Anyone in the marketing, advertising, or PR spaces has begun to build their capabilities in influencer relations and tapping the complex networks through which influence flows. In addition, a key issue is that the content people watch, read, or listen to is increasingly driven by influence, making it a topic of critical importance to publishers.

For those who want to find out more about influence, The Insight Exchange’s kick-off event in Sydney on 19 May is on The Power of Influence. Speakers include Brian Giesen of Ogilvy PR, just arrived in Sydney from Washington DC to fill the role of Director – Digital Strategy for APAC, Cliff Rosenberg, formerly Managing Director of Yahoo!7, and one additional high-profile speaker to be announced shortly, and myself.

Beth Etling, CEO of The Insight Exchange, has blogged about some of Brian and Cliff‘s thoughts on the topic of influence.

If you want to demonstrate your influence, enter the competition to spread word on the event.

Far more on influence coming soon, including an influence landscape framework and the Future of Influence Summit, which will build on the past three years’ success of the Future of Media Summit.