This is for everyone out in the real world September 3, 2009
Posted by David Gillespie in digital strategy, marketing, social media.Tags: American Idol, Katie Chatfield
trackback
There was always something about the idea of influencers I didn’t quite get, as if someone interested in being one somehow popularised the term, and it became self-evident based on that. It was easier for me to believe the audience tuning in to American Idol were environmentally pre-disposed to engaging in that type of content than it was to accept mass stupidity had somehow infected the entire known world. Mind you, that may still be the case…
Never the less, your friend and mine Katie Chatfield has a stunning piece up about this, citing research suggesting the important thing is not key influencers changing behaviour en masse but rather easily influenced people influencing each other in an interminable cycle. The main deck she references is below, but go visit her and say hi, she is a bit of a genius after all.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://i0.wp.com/img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png)
Creative Is Not A Department 
American Idol, So You think You Can Dance, Paris Hilton, Katie Perry and Crocs. The list goes on and on. I think the concept of “easily influenced people influencing each other” hits the proverbial nail on the head. The interesting thing i,s that these so called “influencers” seem to be symptoms of short attention spans and, in conjunction with the ADHD pop culture that spawns them, they tend to go the way of the Dodo reasonably quickly. (Sadly Paris Hilton outlived her 15 minutes long ago and, like most people, I just wish she’d go away)
The thing is though that we’re still waiting for Idol to go away, and it hasn’t happened yet, due to a sufficient number of people still wanting to watch it.
The thing that gets me is that the disposability of almost anyone who has come out of one of these shows is extraordinary, but this does nothing to dampen the enthusiasm the participants on the shows throw themselves into it with. It remains a self-fulfilling prophecy though, the people easily swayed into believing someone is a pop star due to watching them on TV each week are swayed as easily onto something new when the next series begins.