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Five key trends in how influence is transforming society

Ross Dawson, August 26, 2009 8:51 PM US PT

I just got off an interview on the future of influence on 2SM radio which lasted almost 15 minutes - close to a record for my interviews on live AM radio, which tends to do 3-5 minute segments. The talk show host was clearly fascinated by the issues of how influence is shifting away from people like him, and towards the unwashed masses.

In the interview, done in the lead-up to Future of Influence Summit which is on next week in Sydney and San Francisco, I discussed the social transformation wrought by the changing influence landscape, and pointed to key five trends driving this change:

1. Influence is democratized
It used to be that people were influential by virtue of their position, such as CEO, journalist, or politician. In a world of blogging, Twitter, and social media anyone can become highly influential, shaping how we think, behave, and spend. Companies can ignore no-one. As many more become heard, a truer democracy will emerge.

2. Influence can be measured
Subjective lists of the most influential will be replaced by accurate assessments based on the extraordinary information available. New metrics for individual influence and reputation will guide who we hire, do business with, and even date.

3. Reputation shifts from the corporation to the individual
Today corporate reputation matters less than the reputation of the individuals in the company. People don’t trust companies, but they might trust the people working for them. The corporate war for talent will become the war to attract the influential and trustworthy.

4. “Influence is the future of media”
People no longer pick up a newspaper or turn on the television to get their media fix. We now discover the movies, music, news, books, conversation and even new friends we like through influence – the recommendations of many are driving our choices. Publishing or broadcasting itself won’t get an audience - only influencers will create viewers.

5. Business models for influence are emerging
So what if you are influential? Today you can earn directly from your trust and respect, through tools such as TweetROI and IZEA’s sponsored conversations. This is the birth of a true ‘influence economy’. The $500 billion advertising industry may be transformed.

Far more on all this at Future of Influence Summit!

For the most current insights and trends in the living networks, follow @rossdawson on Twitter!

3 Comments

Jon Lloyd said:

Thanks for this insight Ross - from the perspective of a learning organization this is a huge shift in the way that both how and what learning content is delivered to internal, partners, customers, and at the same time demonstrates a huge need for HR orgs to rethink their approach to Talent Management.

http://velocitymg.com/explorations/how-influence-will-transform-learning/

August 27, 2009 1:38 PM

Nir Kossovsky said:

Thank you, Ross. As an Society interested in the business processes that drive reputation, we are intrigued with your predictions. We have summarized them on the blog of the Intangible Asset Finance Society's blog, MISSION:INTANGIBLE.

http://www.iafinance.org/_blog/MISSION_INTANGIBLE/post/Reputation_egalitarianism/

August 27, 2009 2:59 PM

mutuelle said:

thank you for this article

August 27, 2009 6:53 PM

Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, strategy advisor, and bestselling author. He is Founding Chairman of four companies: professional services and venture firm Advanced Human Technologies, future and strategy consulting group Future Exploration Network, leading events firm The Insight Exchange, and influence ratings start-up Repyoot.

Ross is author most recently of Implementing Enterprise 2.0, the prescient Living Networks, which anticipated the social network revolution, and the Amazon.com bestseller Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships (click on the links for free chapter downloads). He is based in Sydney and San Francisco with his wife jewellery designer Victoria Buckley and two beautiful young daughters.