Social Influence Marketing: Is it different to WOM and Social Shopping?

Since my SXSW presentation where I introduced Social Influence Marketing (SIM) more broadly, I've fielded lots thought provoking questions and comments. Most interesting have been the questions about the relationship between SIM, Social Shopping and Word of Mouth Marketing. Here are a few clarifying thoughts.

Firstly, social influence marketing includes social shopping but extends beyond it. Social Shopping is primarily concerned with group purchasing behavior at the point of purchase. It is tied more into sales leveraging the wisdom of the crowds to affect purchasing. And it focuses directly on driving consumers to a purchase as quickly as possible.

Social Influence Marketing is about  social shopping but not just that. At its heart, it is about recognizing the importance of influence - influence at every point point in the marketing funnel. And SIM is concerned with the brand as much as it is with the sales. We know that a person's perception of a given brand is heavily influenced by his or her peer group - the known peer group and the anonymous one too. SIM deals with furthering a brand's image in the online domain by taking advantage of social influence. This may not drive directly towards sales.

The other question that comes up is whether social influence marketing is just another form of word of mouth.  And if it is word of mouth, then what's so special and different about it. For this one must first understand that  word of mouth is primarily about consumers giving information to other consumers. It is about spreading a message not necessarily allowing for the natural influencing of a decision making process. In fact, Word of mouth marketing is defined as giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place.

SIM certainly does borrow from those concepts but it uses social media in all its forms to influence. Unlike word of mouth marketing, it is centered in social media and social relationships within the digital domain. SIM also targets anonymous interactions in a non campaign sense. But most importantly, social influence is about recognizing that any purchasing decision (or brand opinion) is made with various social influences playing a significant role. SIM is about deploying strategies and accompanying tactics to take advantage of those social influences - to account for them in the customer life cycle and design and integrate experiences that map to how they affect consumer behavior.

At the end of the day, SIM is about recognizing that no opinion formed is completely devoid of external influence and therefore any online experience must accommodate and support the social nature of decision making. It'll make for happier and more loyal customers. For more on social influence marketing, read the reports published by Avenue A | Razorfish.

Pictured above is an image taken from Secret Prices. It shows how social influence on a network can play a significant role in purchasing decisions.