Charles Buchwalter, svp at Nielsen, believes that over the next 12 months a social media advertising model will emerge acknowledging and presumably charging for reaching online influencers. Social media that reaches influencers, so the logic goes, should beable to charge higher rates. The “influence factor” he calls it. Readers of this blog know that “Posters” tend to be the thought leaders and taste makers, while Pasters, though important, are less so. Reach one queen bee in the fashion world and you may convert thousands.
In traditional media, Posters and Pasters co-mingle, but only in online can the algorithm truly identify a sale and track it back to a Poster’s site. Using the print model, think of this as paying a premium for positioning. I’m not sure this is a good thing because Posters who earn more will get tainted and start to post differently — like the angry punk rock band that makes it big and moves to the suburbs. Anyway, that said, I believe Mr. Buckwalter is correct. Peace!
