Thank you for participating. You are now an expert.

In the booming world of social media, words like “guru,” “expert,” and … ugh…”innovator” are handed out like participation trophies at a 3rd grade swim meet. But what–or who–determines the line of demarcation between average social media consumer and social media guru?

If you believe communications theorists’ definition of Diffusion Theory, Opinion Leaders (what you or I would call the gurus or experts) are defined by how many people fall in line behind them. So yes, folks: the number of Twitter followers you have does matter after all! Opinion Leaders also have to be well connected, good communicators and relatively innovative (that means that they are ahead of the masses following them, but not too far ahead).

Diffusion theory is all about how to measure social change: When it happens and how. And these opinion leaders are key in the formula.

So when diffusion theory is applied to our society’s massive movement to using digital media as a key communications tool, who are the Opinion Leaders?

Here’s my short list. Who am I missing?

• Steve Jobs — the creator of the iPhone has to place high on anyone’s list, right? Even major phone companies are copying Apple’s designs…and now to my amusement, their advertising strategy. (Side rant: Will someone please tell the “iDon’t” people and the “I’m a PC” people that they are just strengthening the already die-hard crowd of Apple believers???)

Just look at the picture and you can tell Pete Cashmore is a true Opinion Leader...or sumthin'.

• Pete Cashmore — he went from starting a blog in his basement at age 19 to the founder of social media’s mecca. Mashable.com is the source for everything from how-to tips to breaking trends.

• Evan Williams – The co-founder of Twitter has a remarkable record of reinvention and innovation. And if you watch the interview with him at the journalism industry’s best association event of the year, you’ll see he is widely worshipped in the crowds of information dissemination. The tool he helped created has vastly changed blogging and mass communication forever.

This top-three list is just for those related to the field of social media. It’s highly disputable–and I’m sure as soon as I hit “publish” I’ll think of someone huge who should knock Ev off…but no list is perfect. If we had to look at the U.S.’s biggest opinion leaders overall, we’d have to include Oprah and Barack Obama to the list. But thankfully, we won’t try to go that big.

But now I ask:

How is innovation diffusion changing with social media?

Get in line, folks the "guru" has spoken!

I do believe that these opinion leaders are becoming weaker as social networks strengthen. Oprah can still send a book to the bestseller list with a 15-second recommendation and a link on her Web site. But surely there’s less room for more Oprahs within mainstream media. Instead, we are grouping off into many stronger, but smaller, networks–each with its own opinion leader.

This gives more people the opportunity to be considered a “guru” but at the same time less weight to the crown. So maybe our swim coaches had it right all along. Maybe we all deserve participation trophies for being opinion leaders of our own niche. Or perhaps we should start rewarding those who are just following along. They are becoming the rare ones.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

If the topic didn’t have to do with the future of their own industry, I highly doubt journalists would be writing so many damn stories about the future of newspapers (here and here and here for starters). However, being in the industry myself (at least indirectly) I can’t help getting sucked in. Read below another interesting installment in the newspaper industry’s “THE FUTURE OF THE NEWSPAPER” debate (this one from a strictly online news-magazine)

My analysis? I think it’s an interesting assessment, but the premise is flawed. The “answer” to keeping newspapers viable doesn’t lie in one magic device, but rather, making them accessible and reasonably priced (but not free) on a wide variety of devices. I’ll never carry around my “newspaper” device along with my iPhone…I want everything on my iPhone. Currently the NY Times’ application for the iPhone is awful – I can’t get through a lede without the darn thing crashing. The best option I’ve found is NetNewsWire which aggregates my favorites and sends me to Safari to read more. I’d prefer an application that downloaded everything every few hours so I wouldn’t have to wait for the Internet connection. I just bought a book from the App Store and love it. It would be ideal to read the newspaper the same way. But that’s just me…

Building an iTunes for Newspapers
Answering David Carr’s excellent challenge.

By Jack ShaferPosted Monday, Jan. 12, 2009, at 8:24 PM ET

My friend David Carr poses a worthy challenge in his New York Times column this morning: How can newspapers—now hemorrhaging advertisers and circulation—steal a little of that Apple magic and invent an iTunes for news that will help restore their economic standing?

Actually, a flawed iTunes for news already exists: It delivers content through Amazon’s Kindle. The Kindle can download paid subscriptions to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and 12 other dailies via built-in EVDO reception. Newspaper subscriptions run between $5.99 and $13.99 a month.

Finish reading this here…

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.