by Kristy Bolsinger on March 10, 2010
This year has been insane. Like straight up bat crap crazy.
Aside from some awful news from the family (cancer can walk itself off a long pier) I have been doing great and keeping busy.
In mid-January I got to hit up Affiliate Summit West and even got in on a panel. The panel was a site review with Kate Morris, Jane Copland, Christa Watson and Carolyn Shelby.
The conference itself was a new experience for me as I’d never been to an ASW before. I must say that I loved it. Met some amazing people and even got to listen to Paul Oakenfold at one of the parties. Definitely a highlight. Oh yeah – did I mention Lydnon won a bazillion dollars in the luckiest hand of poker EVER?
Betting $2,500 On One Hand of Blackjack from John Chow on Vimeo.
Where to next? Not long ago I was asked by one of my favorite professor’s of marketing at my alma mater, Willamette University’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management , to come give a guest lecture on the strategic use of social media in marketing. Sure I was a little nervous but being perfectly assured that MBA’s cannot be revoked for giving a shoddy presentation post-graduation – I agreed. 
All kidding aside it was great to go talk with a bunch of really curious and insanely intelligent young adults about how social media can benefit strategic marketing campaigns.
So now what? Well later this month (March 29th) I’ll be down in Portland speaking at Social Fresh.
Social Fresh is a social media event and community company based out of Charlotte, NC. Social Fresh flagship events are one day conferences targeted for marketers, focused on case studies, and currently being offered across the country in under-served cities.
There are some great names lined up for Social Fresh and you can follow along on Twitter with the #sofresh hash tag as well. If you’re around for the conference hit me up – would love to meet you or re-connect!
After that I’ll most likely be at PubCon South and definitely SMX Advanced. Anything after that is still up in the air. Hope to see you all at one of these or other conferences!
by Kristy Bolsinger on January 12, 2010
Influential is one thing.
Popular is another.
Damon Cortesi inspired this post with his tweet
Influential is having or exerting influence others around you. Influential individuals are able to catalyze change. They are able to impact the course of events. Influential individuals can alter the path other people are taking and choices they make.
Popularity is not influential.
Being popular is to be regarded with favor. To be looked on with affection from many people. Being popular means everyone wants to be your friend. Being popular is to appeal to the masses.
It is easy to get confused between the two. Especially in an age of “Twilebrity”.
Being popular in social media is a completely different thing from being influential.
Being influential and being popular can look the same. Both get a great number of followers/fans/friends. Both get a great deal of RT’s and reposts. Both get mentioned a lot.
But let’s take a step back here. Let’s remember the substantial difference between influential and popular. Being popular means a lot of people like you. Being influential means you have the power to exert influence over others and make change.
It really comes down to quantity vs quality. You are Ashton Kutcher. You are popular because you have seventy bajillion followers. You are the hot girl in the class that everyone wants to be seen with or take under the bleachers. Or. You are Chris Brogan and you have 115K+ followers. People respect you. You are looked at as a thought leader in the space. Your ideas have merit within the community.
Being influential is not the same as being popular. Let us not forget this. Let us not get carried away with numbers (of followers) and concentrate rather our energy on the value we can add to the community. Let us please keep the popularity pageants and cafeteria squabbles over who gets to sit next to who away from the industry.
If this industry is to mature into something worthy of respect the differentiation between popularity and influence needs to be kept in the forefront of our minds. Otherwise, we will simply begin to eat our young during catty displays’ of sophomoric insanity.
So my question to the community is this: With the many similarities between influential and popular individuals, what are the characteristics that help you filter and define these people in your streams? Or…do you care?
