An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge

Part 2 Part 3

The Influence Pyramid and You

Written by Jay Fuller

Ever like a product so much that you felt inspired to hop onto your Amazon.com account and write a glowing review? Or maybe you just signed onto Twitter so you could share your utter love of that strange yeast by-product, Vegemite?

Really? You like this stuff?

In the age of the Internet, everyone has the power to shape a brand.

Understanding the relationships between different online influencers is an important step in building brand awareness and strategically positioning content. So let’s start at the top.

More Content Makes a World of Difference

Take a look at Kraft’s website for Vegemite. Pretty static, right? Looks like they hired someone to write a few recipes and then called it a day.

Now check out Breville’s Food Thinkers site. Here we have daily updates with new recipes, articles, and videos providing valuable, dynamic content. Notice the difference? Consumers can.

Both brands hired journalists to flesh out their content, but at the top of the Influence Pyramid, there’s only so much they can do.

For the Love of the … Brand?

Just below you have the digital influencers. These guys are the ultimate super fans. Forget money, it’s all about the love.

When a friend teased Scott Lewis about his obsession with Dunkin Donuts way back in 1999, he responded by starting the Dunkin Donuts Talk Blog. Before long, the site was getting almost 2000 unique visits a day.

But Dunkin Donuts never really embraced the online community Lewis had built and the site has since become a shell of its former self. Did DD miss a branding opportunity? We think so.

Johnny Apple Seed

Leaders like Lewis aren’t quite as common as prosumers. Remember that Amazon review you wrote? Or that tweet about Vegemite? This is where you belong.

Prosumers are interested consumers who seed content by sharing links, writing reviews, and participating in online communities. How influential can they be? According to Retrevo, Apple Ipad tweets shot up ten-fold on the day of its announcement to about 500-600 tweets a minute. That’s a lot of brand related content.

And Then There’s the Rest

At the bottom of our pyramid, you find the consumers. They might not be inspired to participate in content creation, but you better believe they read. And read. And read.

They represent about 90% of the online crowd. These are the people who read prosumer reviews and tweets, specialty blogs, and officially created content and take it all to heart.

Consumers ultimately decide brand value with their time and their wallets, so it's important to understand how the influence of brand journalists, digital influencers, and prosumers trickles down. Once you understand the structure of the Influence Pyramid, you've got an essential roadmap for navigating online brand strategy.

Alcohol Etiquette

Hey all you social drinkers out there, let me pose a hypothetical.



Say you invite someone of drinking age to a lunch. Say you order first and get a beer. Do you feel a little bit insulted when the other person does not order an alcoholic drink? Somewhere, deep down, perhaps even subconsciously, do you take it as a minor offense? Is it a social affront that you secretly take to heart? Do you twist it into a condescending character judgment? "Why won't he drink with me? Does he think he's better than me? Am I no fun?"

Well, if for some reason you do, then please don't.

I don't like to drink. I just don't. And that's all there is to it.

Poo-Stache = High Class

New Song! -- Bouncy Waltz

Want to know what kind of music plays in my head ALL DAY LONG? Here's a little sneak peek into my brain:



I was practically tormented by the song. I had to get it out into the real world, had to pick this little idea-booger out so I could move on with my life. This song was absolutely obstinate and refused to go away. So here it is. I've heard it a bajillion times and so I've lost all sense of perspective: is it catchy? Is it pleasant? Who knows? And who cares? It's finally done.

I always wonder if the people who listen to my music appreciate or can even discern (from my crappy, echo-y sound mixes) the layers of harmony and melody going on behind the scene. All told, there are 11 instruments playing (if we count string sections as one instrument). That's 11 parts I have to write! That can be exhausting --damn near maddening-- even on a short piece like this!

For the record, here's the list of instruments playing:

Timpani
Percussion
French Horn
Tuba
4 String Sections (1 pizzicato)
Piccolo
Clarinet
Glockenspiel

To give you a better sense for what individual instruments are doing, here's a version of the song with just the timpani, percussion, French horn, 1 string section, clarinet, and glockenspiel playing.

Web Designin' Banapple

Hey guys and gals. Have you checked out the new Banapple Website yet? It's gone through another design iteration. I don't know about you, but I'm liking it. Almost makes me want to re-design this tired old blog. Too bad that would be a TON of work!

In the meantime, I'm planning on keeping Depth Deception as my personal blog. IT LIVES (at least, for a little while longer!)

Check out Banapple.thecomicseries.com