When talking with colleagues and clients there’s one sentence that crops up in virtually every conversation; what constitutes to influence? ‘Hmmm’, I hear you breathe into your coffee, ‘let’s see him attempt this beauty’. Well here goes…

Influence can mean many things to many people, so let’s look at those things, is influence;

Knowledge on a subject?

Audience size?

Audience make up?

Authority within a network?

Effect within a network?

Wide knowledge on a variety of niche topics? Or large knowledge on a single topic?

Online or offline?

Geographical?

Limited to real life connections or does it extend to online connections?

Effected by external input from other sources?

Connected to frequency?

Connected to quality?

Could all of these things be diluted by good personal branding?

The work that I’ve been producing in the past six months points to a variety of these, in some cases all of them, in other cases two of them. But what’s important is that you establish a common understanding of influence before you start anything. Influence means something different every time you say it. Stuart has influence over me because he’s my boss, Tim has influence over me because I (gulp) respect him and my Dad has influence over me because he’s not often wrong… So the next question is ‘How do we then go on to categorise the different types of influence?’ Next post, I promise…

Watch this EveryDay Looper video, and tell me that you don’t have exactly the above reaction.

I told you so.

So, and here’s the beauty of this, are you now heading straight to the app store to buy EveryDay Looper? I’m guessing… Yes.

Me too. Did it immediately, I didn’t even baulk at the relatively hefty £3 for it either.

I watched the video. Bought the app. Realised that I am in no way ever going to be able to do what the guy in the video does. Even though the app has an incredibly intuitive interface, I’ll never be able to do that. My fingers are too fat for a start, I end up recording two tracks at once…

Incidentally, the guy in the video built the app. I will hand-on-heart say that I think this is the best marketing campaign for an app I’ve seen yet. It’s absolutely incredible.

Darika and Kerry both recently posted about blogger outreach, they both wrote how, due to small campaign scales, we should look at client education and turn down short term work or shift focus from influential bloggers to mainstream bloggers and save ourselves time and effort – after all, we don’t have enough budget to maintain permanent blogger relations, do we?

Darika wrote;

It’s not possible to build trusted relations and have brand conversations in the short-term. Three months, the traditional quarterly budget or common campaign cycle, is not long enough.

Yes. Yes we do, that’s what we’re paid to do, that’s why we’re specialists and expert relationship builders.

Blogger relations, much like media relations isn’t just for Christmas, or Spring, or Summer. The people that you meet today don’t have a shelf life, and the strongest relationships are the ones that develop over a long period of time. Making friends isn’t a start / stop process.

Kerry wrote;

Niche bloggers might well not have the same range of places to get info and may well also feel a bit used and abused after the short campaign finishes. Which made me think that perhaps we shouldn’t look to engage bloggers at all on a proactive basis.

Kerry’s point about niche blogs really falls on my deaf ears; niche bloggers don’t feed from the mainstream, it’s completely the other way around. Run a network analysis tool (like ours ) through virtually any network and you’ll find that the influential blogs are the niche ones – watch how the news spreads through a network and 9 times out of 10 you’ll find it starts at a niche blog. So no, you can’t ignore them and just go for the big boys.

Kerry wrote;

I think basically I’m advocating a hybrid approach between traditional media relations and a self-service canteen here, which would lead to bloggers being self-selecting about working with PRs rather than being bombarded with love and then dropped when the next campaign starts.

Some of this I believe in, you can’t just drop a blogger once the campaign is finished, you need to nurture that relationship – most clients buy agencies for two reasons; experience and expertise – that expertise is what you know and who you know. WHO YOU KNOW.

As Darika says;

I personally turn down a lot of short-term project work these days because I think it’s not possible to achieve much beyond securing a few blog posts. I also don’t like hearing from bloggers and community contacts that they weren’t looked after beyond the life-cycle of a specific campaign – I’m not in this industry for the short-term.

Phew.

Kerry’s post also bought up another issue I’ve been wanting to raise; An inconvenient PR truth (I’m now back to agreeing with Kerry!), and Adam Parker (again, someone that I have the upmost respect for). The inconvenient truth is a very noble concept, it looks to fix our industry, but hey, let’s be frank, the only people that will read that already probably follow the Bill of Rights – they’re savvy PR people, that’s how they found it. They don’t work at a two man agency in Swinbourne that peppers national press with  lawnmower spares news releases.

# This post has been updated in a few ways, quotes have now been attributed, a quote from Darika has been added and a sentence has been added that distinguishes two points (second paragraph, first sentence).

But something that Mr Bogusky said really resonated with me, he said;

“I had one seemingly impossible dream when I started in advertising and that was to leave the industry different than I found it. For people to be able to say, ‘It was like this before Crispin Porter+Bogusky. It’s like this now.’ I feel like that’s been done.”

Wow, a pretty bold claim, but (and I’m sure you can see where this is going) one that I also aspire to. Most people fall into PR and enjoy it because it’s fun, social and creative. I enjoy PR because I feel like everyday I get a teeny bit closer to making an impact. I probably don’t, but in my head a bit changes.

So (and here’s the kicker), I’m putting it out there; I want to leave this industry different from how I found it.

Hopefully I’ll be leaving it at about 30 (the plan is to do a Freud and sell an agency for 11million at 31) having made some sort of difference.

Even if that difference is a big black mark on the industry. Which is quite likely. And I’ll probably be poor, no one leaves an industry at 30.

Most of you won’t have gotten this far, as it seems a bit dull, but for those that fought on past that turgid first forty words here’s your treat; the Forrester stuff reopens the ‘how much is too much’ debate. The internet is great, social media is great, but where should we draw the line with how much information we share? We all need to make a living, how to we contribute to our community while still retaining some of that USP that organisations want?

Now, for the non-geeks, that’ll mean you’ll have an extra email address (rumoured to be your vanityURL@facebook.com – jedhallam@facebook.com) and you’ll be able to get Facebook mail through Outlook, Thunderbird, on your phone etc.

This could be quite cool, and it does fit with the idea that Facebook wants to represent your entire online identity, rather than just being a part of it. It would also probably fill the expectations that Google Wave failed to meet – with over 350 million people on Facebook, would this make email more popular? I think so – people could quite easily move to sending each other emails over texting, and Facebook would make that much more accessible and less of a cultural change than it would be now.

Oh, and the rumour goes that the project is called Titan. Which I think is a bit rubbish as far as names go, maybe call it ‘emailkiller’ or ‘longsmsthingy’.

I was going to talk about every single point, but that would be both arduous and a bit silly, so instead I’ve highlighted a few I’d like to make jokes about;

Augmented reality
Everyone is talking about augmented reality (AR). And since Layer was released, I wound my neck back in and realised that you could actually use it for something useful and that it was more than just something shiny for the PR magpies. The issue with AR is that it still needs that killer app – the one that defines AR, that makes your gran stand on a table and flash the vicar. AR needs that last button push to really show what it can do.

Cordless power
Cordless power is amazing, I want one of those Powermat things – any offers? A few years ago, I had a daydream (How very MLK) that soon we’d have a giant zeppelin flying over the UK distributing power so that nothing ever lost its charge and free wifi throughout the whole of the country so that you’d always be connected. Well cordless power answers one of those and WiMax being installed in lamposts answers the other. Digital Britain? Yup.

FourSquare
Another shiny new toy for social media and geeks the world over, FourSquare, much like AR, needs a few more buttons pushed before it kicks into that lovely endzone of value. Sure, it’s great to know where Tim Hoang is constantly, but where I get my value from is peer-reviews of places, FourSquare marketing devices and being the Mayor of Wolfstar. Albeit virtually.

Gaming software
I work in PR. I have an iPhone. Figures, right? Well I also like to play games, mostly in the loo, waiting for something or when I need something to draw the right side of my brain away so the left can have a little bit of air. I also own a PS3 and a Wii, and you’ll never guess what I use for gaming the most? My iPhone. So DoodleJump (INSANE), Puzzle Bobble, Canabalt, Labyrinth, Sonic (kicking it old school) and Glow Hockey all get a hammering. And as emulators become more popular amongst the people that don’t know what an emulator is, mobile gaming will only rise further.

Hand-me-ups
The act of giving an older relative something you’ve had your fussy out of. I like this, it’s nice and it means that my nan will be able to listen to Spotify now.

Handwriting
The rise of the Internet, email and social media apparently means that no one uses paper anymore, well according to JWT Intelligence there’s about to be a backlash. To be honest, this one’s a bit irritating – things like The Travelling Moleskine mean that people find handwriting more of an art form that a neccesity and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Moleskine + black ink = happy smiley people.

Lifestreaming
I already pretty much do this, but as more and more people connect with social media (enabled by better mobile devices, netbooks and a lack of money for things outside of the house) more and more we’ll find that Jim Jimson, the irritating guy you once met at house party in 2002, is now videoing himself on the bus and giving you audio reviews of anime. So if lifestreaming is trend for 2010, then unfriending might very well be a trend for 2011.

Lost series finale
I watched three episodes of Lost and then couldnt really be bothered. Since then, I met Becca who is now bullying me into catching up so we can watch the final series together. I also LOVE how Lost is multiplatform (read all about it here, on the excellent blog of Nick Burcher. So, due to having a bully of a fiance and the hoohaa of it being the last season, I’ll be watching Lost.

Mobile money and mobile ticketing
As people become much more trusting and informed about technology, the rise of Useful Things You Can Do With A Mobile will move from two things (talking and texting) to about a million. Including banking (as seen pretty much all over Africa and South East Asia) and ticketing (as seen all over the Nordics, lucky blighters). Making things more mobile means we have less crap to carry and more time for fun. I like this.

Pandemic fatalism
The media has bombarded us with stories of apocalyptic viral killers for too long now (SARs, Swineflu, CJD…). It’s backlash time. I think people are going to begin to take everything with a pinch of salt from 2010. Until, of course, the media is right and half the world keels over with some sort of tortoise-spread disease. We joke now, it’ll be a Daily Mail headline at some point.

Paying for online content
Not. Going. To. Happen. For why, see below.

The Pirate Party
The rise and rise of online piracy has also seen the rise of The Pirate Party, an actual politcal party that are now third, yup, THIRD, in command in Sweden. Third. And they have a seat in the EU too. Seriously.

Retail as third space
Making retail environments more experiential is something that retailers HAVE to start doing. Online shops make a ton of money because they add value (peer-reviews, impeccable customer service, CHEAP) so if high street retailers are looking at catching up, they must start adding value to customer experience.

Slow communications
A silly one that JWT threw in. People are apparently going to rebel against immediate communications in 2010 and begin to communicate  slower. The reason why people like fast comms is because it means we have more time for fun things.

Spotify
I. Love. Spotify. That is all.

TV/Web integration
This is something that we’ve been working with Discovery on to help it engage and use the two-screen phenomena to its advantage – give your programming a interactive feel (Example; Mad Men characters as Twitter profiles) and you’ll connect with your audience in a much more meaningful way. Watch as 2010 brings more forward-thinking broadcasters to social media.

Video
As more people get better as using technology then inevitably more people will want to be Internet ’slebs – cue a million more Lauren Luke’s.

Zach Galifianakis
Between Two Ferns. Click it and it will change your life.

And here’s the long list.

1. 3D at home
2. Airline subscriptions
3. Alternative measures of prosperity
4. Alternative metals in jewelry
5. Asias widening income gap
6. Augmented reality
7. Bacon everywhere
8. Bio-based airplane fuel
9. Boeing 787 dreamliner
10. Bogota
11. Brighter colours
12. Buycotting
13. Carey Mulligan
14. Coconut water
15. Composting
16. Contemporary Indian art
17. Cordless power
18. Customised pharmaceuticals
19. Deficit neutral
20. Donald Glover
21. Dry Shampoo
22. East Africa wired
23. Electric car networks
24. Electric cars
25. Electronic libraries
26. Ellen on idol
27. Energy dieting
28. Ethical fashion
29. European free speech
30. Exotic berry flavours
31. Fermentation
32. Fernando Torres
33. FourSquare
34. Gambling in Singapore
35. Gaming software
36. Green retrofits
37. Greening the palate
38. Hand-me-ups
39. Handwriting
40. Harry Potter in Orlando
41. Haute fashion on eBay
42. Hybrid boats
43. Impact of the UK general election
44. Ironic sports
45. Japan on the sidelines
46. Japan’s first lady
47. Jay Chou
48. Kindle rivals
49. LED bulbs
50. Li Ning
51. Lifestreaming
52. Lionel Messi
53. Little Boots
54. Local, non-profit newspapers
55. Lost series finale
56. Luxury goes East
57. Marina Silva
58. Mia Wasikowska
59. Michael Jackson tribute concert
60. Mobile money
61. Mobile ticketing
62. More virtual currencies
63. New portrait of hispanic America
64. “Nutrition-washing”
65. Obesogens
66. Organic fast food
67. Pandemic fatalism
68. Paying for online content
69. The pirate party
70. PlayStation 3 motion controller
71. Post-Lila Brazil
72. Pro modding
73. Public bicycles
74. Recycling gray water
75. Retail as third space
76. Return of the water fountain
77. Runaway democracy
78. Silent dance parties
79. Ski cross at winter Olypmics
80. Slow beverages
81. Slow communication
82. Spanish e-books
83. Spiderman on Broadway
84. Spotify
85. Stephen Strasburg
86. Stevia
87. Tactile/visual design
88. Trip bundling
89. TV for tween boys
90. TV/web integration
91. Urban fruit gleaning
92. US – Cuba ties
93. Video
94. Virtual house calls
95. Volunteer rewards
96. Water footprint tracking
97. The waterless washing machine
98. The wine-tail
99. The Wonder Girls
100. Zach Galifianakis

As usual, I found the original slideshow on the Digital Buzz Blog, I made the list myself, for you, so there you go. Don’t say I never give you anything.

Word up.

So this is why Keiichi Matsuda must never be left alone with a laptop. Or else the world could become a crazy explosion of consumerism, architecture and that thing every marketeer is trying to find budget for at the moment augmented reality.

Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

I originally saw this on the awesome Digital Buzz blog…

Except I hadn’t anticipated Steven Finch’s latest post over at Crenk.

*Cue shocking orchestral noises*

Lock your doors and bolt the windows, the worlds biggest information bank is starting to expand it’s database…

Google now knows my friends, and it wants me to know that it knows, so that I know it knows what I didn’t want it to know. Yeah. It’s that bad.

So, Google (of Don’t be evil fame), has taken to sketching out my network on it’s notepad – by sketching, I mean listing in search, and by listing in search I mean scaring the shit out of people.

Google Social (go on, click it) incorporates your social circle, so a simple image search will bring up associated photos that your friends might have uploaded. It’ll also start throwing up your network in normal search. Google’s blog gave this little treat away;

We think there’s tremendous potential for social information to improve search, and we’re just beginning to scratch the surface.

Good. I was worried that listing all my electronic connections and judging my search by my network would be the end. No, what I want is to be totally defined by my social network. I’d like for you to constantly judge me based on the preferences of my peers.

Thanks Google, maybe next time you can take my mum out on a date and ask her if I used to wet the bed.

Look at this video for more proof of plans that would make Orwell steal his own identity just to escape it…