Rise of the Mobile Influencer

After my last post I realized that I’ve been referring to a group of users as mobile influencers, but hadn’t defined them yet. Most of this is common sense but just in case . . . .

These users are those that have an iPhone or Android and use them primarily for SMS or pushing data to social sites such as Facebook, Twitter & Foursquare. They utilize media in their postings to social sites, preferring to include images/video to tell their story. Both men and women (50/50), ages 18 – 45, are socially active with their online personas mirroring their daily lives. They are not early adopters but are quick adapters to new technology. (They don’t know that Twitter is going to be baked into iOS 5 but they will be the first ones to use the feature.) They’re a fan of quality and pay attention to brands that bake quality into their product or service.

These users may or may not fall into a niche other than the group I call Mobile Influencers. They usually are passionate about several things in their life and can’t live without from an experiential standpoint. i.e. They love the Ocean (SCUBA dive & surf), to snowboard, ride their Trek and use their iPhone to spread the word! They are hyper-aware of news/businesses surrounding those passions. They love brands such as Audi, Apple, Starbucks and Virgin Air but aren’t pretentious. (No matter what Angelo says.)

The reason this group is so important is that they usually span diverse niches, feeding information to multiple groups as to what’s happening with their shared passions. This makes them highly coveted and it’s also important to remember that they’re completely incapable of being fooled. They look for real products/services and are quick to turn on anything that seems plastic. Not out spite, but out of principle.

They look for businesses who’re transparent and love the opportunity to collaborate with businesses. They find the potential of collaborating with businesses, very exciting.

I have no idea how many there are but I see them all the time. Businesses need to pay attention to this group if they want to leverage the mobile/social web.