Over the last six months, we’ve been focusing on influence - blogging about it, talking to client and colleagues, researching the impact of online influence.  What started as a basic premise - the idea that amidst all the new dynamics in the market, influence still matters - has grown into a full-blown methodology that is shaping the way Eastwick does business.

We call it the Architecture of Influence.

We’ve all experienced how much marketing and communications has changed over the last several years with the advent of social media.  That’s old news.  Eastwick’s new framework is based on a data-driven approach that uncovers the real influencers in a market, not based on gut feel or old assumptions but what the data tells us about who really matters.  On top of that, we layer our smarts about the market and how those influencers work in order to drive awareness and influence sales.

We’re talking evolution not revolution, but the change is an important one and makes it possible for us to measure the results of communications in terms that matter most to our clients - market awareness, influencer engagement and customer preference, to name a few.

Architecture of Influence

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We’ve never been on the bandwagon that has declared brands are dead but we do understand why the claims are being made.  There is now a lot more that goes into buying decisions by consumers and business buyers than just brand awareness.  But to claim that brands don’t matter is naïve.  I guess Yahoo agrees based on its latest search offering.

And yet the Yahoo search filter seems to suggest that, just possibly, the idea of the brand isn’t dead after all. With branded search filtering, Yahoo is acknowledging that many searchers don’t want results from just anywhere, regardless of how algorithmically relevant those results may be. Searchers want results (from trusted Web sites) — which is to say, from trusted online brands.

Source: c__

We’ll be talking a lot more about the need for looking at communications and marketing in an entirely new light–one where search, branding and word of mouth need to coexist for companies to really take advantage of all channels to create awareness and preference for their offerings.  I get a chuckle…and some times totally annoyed…when I see dramatic claims about PR being dead, social media being free and branding irrelevant.  Glad to see that others agree.

The hoopla surrounding Kanye West’s latest “foot-in-mouth” moment (or should I say “mic-in-mouth”?) was yet another reminder of the speed and power of the social media machine. While I hate to perpetuate these discussions that give the man more air time than he deserves, the breadth of awareness on this singular incident makes for an interesting example of social media engagement.

Source: MTV

Companies, still reticent on putting integrated social media strategies in place, will soon realize that people are online and, whether you decide to engage or not, are talking about you. Case in point…as soon as Kanye self-righteously stepped on the glittering MTV stage and grabbed the mic out of young Taylor Swift’s hands the response was swift (pun intended)…and the bloggers, twitterati, video deejays, talk show hosts, etc. were weighing in.

While some leveraged morning talk shows or evening entertainment news programs, most took the fight online. And fight they did, with Kanye receiving a smackdown unseen since Perez Hilton’s faceoff with former Miss California Carrie Prejean. According to Trendrr, which tracks buzz on Twitter, there were a total of 293,024 tweets in the hour immediately following West’s outburst.

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Source: The New Yorker, January 15, 2007

My typical workday is never really typical, which is great. But, I guess that’s what makes it so hard to explain what we do sometimes?

When people ask what I do, I usually answer with the compendious “Tech communications,” and I almost always get asked… “What’s that?” And then something clicks, “Ooooh, Public Relations, so that’s when you write press releases and get coverage, right?”

I’ve even received the evil eye and a negative response referring to corporate/political flacks who make their living covering up everything from the public.

<Deep breath>

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As followers of this blog, and Eastwick in general, are well aware, we are all about influence. I remember one of the first business examples told to me in grammar school was the success of McDonalds in their early days, targeting ads at children knowing that they would talk to one another and eventually influence their parents to buy a Happy Meal.

That example seems so basic and possibly even outdated. But is it? With all the technology at our fingertips, has word of mouth shifted (at least partially) online, or do you still need to hear something face-to-face for the ultimate impact?

We decided to ask an expert.

Kristen Smith is the Executive Director of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and we’re delighted she’s this week’s guest on our podcast, Break through the Noise.

[Listen]

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