Social Influencing

 Hasn't life changed!  And the rate of change is dizzying.  Who can keep up?  Not me.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the glut of content, here's the solution of too much information many people have adopted:  Social influencers.  If you are old or wary or have adapted to the information age by opting out, you may not know what social influence is.  Here's a tutorial.

A social influencer is a person with a robust, even mind blowing presence on the web.  They tend to post vlogs (short videos on a topic) instead of writing blogs (a now archaic presence on the web).  Using YouTube, and Instagram, they build hundreds of thousands if not millions of 'followers' (people who watch the vlogs) and 'like them'.  Thus, social influencers tend to be industry specific (beauty, food, parenting, automotive, tech, etc.).  

Now, here's the real kicker:  People trust the opinions of social influencers over information provided by a product manufacturer or government official, or elected official.  In other words, a company can make all the advertisements they desire, a politician or official can deliver information or speeches, but they are not as believed as the vlogger.  Can you already see what's happening?  

Social influencers make $$$$ by accepting advertisements on their vlogs or just outright cash from producers of products or backers of a particular world view, and they vlog about it.  Basically, you're still being shilled even if you think you're getting an unbiased assessment of a product or idea by a vlogger.   These unvetted (who monitors their truthfulness), uncredentialled (what are their qualifications) and uninformed vloggers are the current movers of public opinion, and they are being straight up paid and manipulated by the wealthy and the political fringe.  

So, what will change a person's opinion on a topic or about a product?  Vloggers have to be aware of 'cognitive dissonance'.  This is a psychology term which means how people perceive information which is contrary to their world view.  Let's say you 'follow' one of the leading vloggers on any subject you can imagine:  beauty, parenting, politics to name a few.  One day, the beauty vlogger does a video showing how to use the least amount of make up possible.  Or, the parenting blogger does a video showing how to 'hit a toddler'.  Or, a right wing political vlogger does a video endorsing climate change.  Any one of these would be contrary to the world views of a majority of his/her 'followers'.  How does the follower of a social influencer handle the vlogger's sudden change of heart?  Not only does the loyal follower ignore the influencer's opinion, they begin to actively double down on their own world view rejecting the influencer. 

Back to the question:  How can you change a person's opinion on a topic or about a product?  It's still all about social influence.  People shift their thinking about a topic or product when they hear the contrary view from the outer edges of the social influencer's network. (This is according to a paper from the University of Pennsylvania on social networking.)  If you want to change opinions, avoid the center of a social network.  Instead, look to an influencer on the outer edges of a social network.  Instead of being one of a million, the person who changes opinions is one of 100.  

Social influence is a reality of the electronic age.  Everyone who doesn't live under a rock is being socially influenced.  Pretending YOUR opinions are not being influenced is simply folly.   As soon as information started to be disseminated more globally, people have been influenced.  Think books, newspapers, movies, radio, television, and now:  websites. 

Here's why you should care and think about who is influencing you.  The United States moves socially and politically on PUBLIC OPINION.  You can't legislate people's opinions.  People change their opinions about a subject based on exposure.  Surprisingly, exposure to local influencers are what changes opinions.  However, mega influencers (bought and paid for) drown out other voices.   The question a thinking person asks is:  Who is trying to shaping my world view?