This week's topic for leadership and media strategies is a fascinating one in that many probably never thought to exist. Opinion leaders and Social media at its best. Social media has been the new vision of new age technology that has evolve and will continue to evolve. The influence that it has over our daily lives has been evident on a daily basis within the entertainment industry. I have been trying to catch up with the modern technology to advance my knowledge of products and services. Over the last ten years, I never expected the social media to be as influential as it has and continue to be.
As new products and services continue to evolve, the opinion leaders are making an impact on what people are purchasing. If you don't know what an opinion leader is, then I will put some light on the meaning as I have found out recently as well. Opinion leaders are individuals that are innovators of new products, ideas and gives advice and information to individuals before purchasing. This is something that in a million years that I would've never thought about until class readings. You may ask the question how can this be? Reflect on this, products and services are being presented on Social Media daily such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and Instagram, we all can agree! Opinion leaders are the ones that give insight on whether they had a good or bad experience with a product. These innovators will make you want to try the product or service, and the Millennials are at the forefront of commercializing. Strong opinion leaders will help promote a product by having people expand on their ideas and this in return leads to people spreading the information by word-of-mouth.
Over the years I have been slowly adapting to the diffusion of innovation that is carried out by the marketing of the Digital generation. It took me awhile to get on Facebook after Myspace ended and now the younger generations are trying to convince me to get on Twitter and Instagram by telling me the benefits of other social media sites. I am still in the laggard mindset that hates to adapt to change even though I am a part of the Generation Nexters. For many years I have been counseling youth and have learned a lot about the new trends that are going on. They know almost everything about technology and when I ask them the question; how do you all know this? The response they give to me is because they found out from social media and the celebrities have told them. So, with myself not being on all the social media sites, I wouldn't know what is going on in the social media world. Now that I see how opinion leaders can influence a generation, after the readings that I have invested my time in acquiring the knowledge. Even my nephew has the opinion leadership tools as he communicates with his friends on a daily basis about products and I have been amazed by his knowledge of products.
Social media is similar to news outlets that produce stories that people are interested in knowing what is going on in today's society. With that in mind opinion leaders do the same but promote real life experiences to the public. All this power of knowledge can be beneficial when understanding the importance of technology, whether in a traditional or social setting. Look at how times have changed from the 90's until today; newspapers and TV commercials did everything in promoting a product or service. Now the visualization of stories are being utilized, for example when trying to purchase a car; Blake Griffin promotes the Kia automobile on TV commercials and Instagram. Singers, rappers, and entertainers are great opinion leaders because of their influence and the fan base that ranges into the hundreds of thousand of followers.
The desire to be the first of many to try something new is what drives the millenniums, instead of waiting two weeks for prices to drop on products and finding out what issues that may persist, they still want to be one of the first to post a pic on social media. We must not forget that all stories from opinion leaders aren't always positive stories and the powerful ones can destroy a product or service produced by a company. After viewing the Ted talk video from http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html, it gives a clear understanding of the why and what. Take your time to view this video and see what I amazed to learn. Knowledge is power and having the knowledge can be lethal in becoming a reliable source.
Whenever you sit back and think about your first known product for purchase, did you take the advice of a person in making a purchase? If so, from what media site in this new technological world did you get advice and did you follow the recommendation? If you answered yes to the following questions and took the advice from a person from a social media site, then you've encountered an opinion leader, and the advice was to your liking.
Overall, as you clearly see, our decision-making process can influence people that have the ability to change your mindset. How many followers they may have to solidify their expertise? Once the mind becomes focused on getting something that is wanted, we will take all the necessary steps to be a part of the purchasing group. Maybe one day I and others will utilize all of the social media sites and try to be more open instead of being limited. This information has been very informative as a power of knowledge in a learning capacity that will allow me to communicate with others for the next few weeks and beyond.
Continue to support my blog, as every week will relay information that may be useful in your everyday living scenario; whether at work, or social settings as you gather with friends. Stay tuned for the next several weeks will expand your horizon as the knowledge of media strategies continue to grow.
