Why We Love to Influence and Be Influenced

Everyone loves to be influenced whether they admit it or not.  (And they love to buy and hate to be sold.) The fashion, music, entertainment and online industries thrive on this principal.  You, my friend, are a social influencer no matter whether it’s to a large or small degree.

Don’t you love to recommend cool music and movies to your friends?  Don’t you know at least one person who likes to know where celebrities vacation and what kinds of clothes they wear?  Don’t you remember how obvious this was when you were a teenager?  You still do it, you just have more self control now that you’re a mature adult.

Like it or not, if you’re in a human body you are an influencer and a marketer. If you choose to capitalize on this you may even become an expert used in influencer marketing.

The way you dress, the language you use, the city you live in, where you spend your time and money and many other factors reflect what you consume, how you think and what you do.

When you get excited about these things and talk to your friends about them you are marketing them and marketing yourself.  If you know about cool things first and your friends appreciate you turning them on to those things then you feel cool.

Marketing 101 theory is that people love to buy from people they trust and love.  In other words, people who’s opinions they think are valuable.

This value varies depending on your personal experience of the influencer who’s sharing or promoting a product or service to you. How you’re influenced by friends is the same deal as how you’re influenced by Madison Avenue, though your friends have more sway with you since you already like and trust them.

The main reasons that we like to be influenced are that we like to feel understood, appreciated and special.  We’re influenced greatly by messages that make us feel connected to a person, tribe, idea, product or service that we think is cool.

This is the basis of consumerism – people put themselves into debt and create a ton of stress for themselves by buying tons of stuff they don’t need with money they don’t have (credit cards, mortgages and car loans) to impress people they don’t know (and may not even like) but whom they think are worth trying to impress.

Psychological disorder, social brain washing or a marketers wet dream …or all of the above? – you decide.

I’m not judging this, just explaining it.  Look, this blog even has the word influence in the the title so you know I’m into it.

Now I invite you to pay attention to how you are influenced and how you influence others and comment here.  Do you agree with me or think I’m nuts.  Just post something to exert your influence a little and let me know you’re alive and reading this.