Tell Me What You Like & I’ll Tell You Who You Are
By: The Eon Group
Tags: Communication, Analytics, Influencer Marketing, Social Media, Digital Marketing

Tell Me What You Like & I’ll Tell You Who You Are

Harnessing the science of influencer marketing to make sense of society (Part 1 of 2)

Society is no stranger to professional influencers of public opinion. From the age of toga-donning philosophers in ancient Greece to the more contemporary Al Gore-types with crusades for worthy causes, famous people have always been trying to persuade the public of one thing or another.

The only difference is that today, instead of podiums for the most esteemed personalities, we have newsfeeds collating the thoughts and ideas of everyone in our social circles and beyond. The accessibility of information online means that anyone could become subject-matter experts overnight and the ubiquity of social media means that everyone now has the tools to become public opinion makers.

The result of this is a surge in numbers of influencers who use social media to lend their two cents both on broad issues and on every niche market imaginable. Influencers have so deeply permeated our social media newsfeeds that the mechanics of social conversation has shifted irrevocably. By changing the ways that stories are told, the messages themselves have also begun to evolve to adapt to new mediums and new audience expectations. This disruption is most evident in two fields: marketing and politics.

Recent years have seen brands invest more in opinion leaders to tell their stories for them. Influencer marketing moves away from the traditional approach of directly broadcasting one-size-fits-all messages to the masses; instead, it aims to sway opinions and behavior by telling relevant and resonant stories to a relatively smaller but more targeted audience. Many social media influencers have reached celebrity status amassing up to millions of followers on social networking sites, but in theory, influencers go beyond offering mere exposure. They bring to the table their credibility and expertise in a given topic — things that brands leverage to build their own reputation, to strengthen their presence in their conversation space of choice, and to give themselves a human face.

But products and services are not the only things that influencers are able to sell. Ideologies and political perspectives have also been peddled online to rally support behind or opposition toward politicians and policies. All sides of the political spectrum have taken up their digital megaphones. This has created a more politically involved society but also an arguably more hostile online space where extreme supporters of one camp or another go to great lengths — like fake news and fake profiles — to propagate their ideas and malign their opponents.

While the popularity of social networking sites did translate to the rise of social media influencers, ironically, the creation of this more inclusive market of ideas meant that standing out becomes all the more challenging. To succeed in this space, it is not enough to have a strong and differentiated personal brand; influencers must also consistently share content that connect deeply with their audiences, and successfully doing this presupposes a good grasp of the values and motivators of their fan base.

Given that, it stands to reason that the inverse could also be true — by understanding the success of influencers, we are clued in on the way a sizeable segment of society think, what they value, what they are interested in, and what excites them enough to merit social media activity.

This is why we decided to perform an experiment.

To learn a little more about the Philippine society, we turned our attention to some of the most influential people on Philippine social media. Using Gravity, The EON Group’s proprietary influencer measurement and optimization service, we dug deeper into the profiles of two celebrity endorsers — actress-singer Anne Curtis and TV host Iya Villania — to pinpoint the aspirations they embody and why these images of them appeal to their fan base.

We also ventured beyond the entertainment industry to consider personalities whose spheres of influence put politics at the center. There is no other social media influencer as formidable and game-changing as entertainer turned advocate of Pres. Duterte, Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson. However, we also wanted to understand why politicians themselves appeal to their own supporters, which is why we turned to the other side of the political spectrum and looked into Vice Pres. Leni Robredo.

In undertaking this challenge, what we did was to look at two things: first, we identified these pages’ posts from the last three months that gained the most and least attention among their fans. Second, we extracted the Fan Activity Maps of these influencers. Simply speaking, a Fan Activity Map shows all the other fan pages that share the same active fans with a brand or influencer. To generate this map, an algorithm identifies Facebook users who regularly engage with the fan page, meaning those who like, comment or share the fan page’s posts regularly. Now among this group of active fans, the algorithm looks into the other pages with which these fans also engage. The result is this web of connections that show which pages share the same active fans. The stronger and more direct the link between two fan pages, the more active fans they have in common.

It is important to remember that these Maps, and even the most and least successful posts, take into consideration not what the page does, but what its fans do. This matters because through this glimpse into the social media behavior of the fans, we are able to draw conclusions about what matters to people. This kind of information brings a plethora of uses for the personalities and brands themselves, but also for social observers like us who try to make sense of people.

For influencers and endorsers, this is a good way to find out what resonates with the audiences, which in turn could serve as a guide to create content that generates engagement. Influencers can also gauge their own success as endorsers by looking at whether they are able to drive their fans to engage with the pages of the brands with which they are affiliated. For brands, looking at the Fan Activity Maps could lead to finding new touch points that are relevant to their markets. If the fans of a fast food chain also interact with a music app, maybe the fast food chain could come up with a special playlist to fit the mood of their restaurants.

As for those merely curious about society at large, understanding the behavior of the fans of these most salient pages is tantamount to understanding the behavior of millions upon millions of Filipinos, the same Filipinos who are responsible for the fame of these personalities. What we did find is equal parts enlightening and curious, and we invite you to read the next two posts in our three-part series and make your own conclusions.