How Network Hubs Impact Influencer Marketing and Mass Advertising

Snapchat influencer Jerome Jarre raised 1 million dollars for Somalia in just 24 hours.

In response to the Somalia Food Insecurity Crisis which left millions without food and water, Turkish Airlines (the only international airline that flies to Somalia) partnered with Jarre to bring humanitarian aid to the people there. Jarre took to social media and spread awareness using the hashtag #TurkishAirlinesHelpSomalia. His posts went viral and other social media influencers spread the message. Over the first 5 days, 80,000 people contributed money and spread awareness enabling Turkish Airlines to send 10 planes full of food and water to Somalia.

This is one of many examples of the power and authority influencers hold.

We tend to trust Instagram influencers, our fifth-grade school teachers, and other authority figures almost completely. In the field of network science, which studies society as individual connected nodes, these “opinion leaders” or “influentials” hold structural power to change the ideas and behaviors of entire social systems. Network analysis aims to locate these central nodes who can control the spread of information.

Network analysis holds tremendous potential in viral marketing wherein identifying appropriate key nodes can lead to optimal diffusion of information about the product or the brand. However, in addition to the network’s word-of-mouth, this diffusion of information is also influenced by external factors such as advertising, internet search, government mandates, or environmental factors. For example, on a rainy day, one would carry an umbrella regardless of cues from their social network.

A recent 2021 study conducted by Gabriel Rossman at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Jacob C. Fisher at the University of Michigan, looked at the influence of network-based diffusion in tandem with external influences from sources such as advertising.

Methodology: Seeding Diffusion of Information in Different Nodes of a Social Network

The researchers created a large-scale computer simulation of various social networks in which they seeded diffusion of information in the most central node or a node chosen at random.

They then measured how much faster the information passed when the initial node was highly central (treatment condition) versus chosen at random (control condition). The information was graphed with one axis correlating with the strength of network-based diffusion (eg. word of mouth) and the other axis measuring the strength of an external force (eg. advertising and mass media) across time.

With no external influence, information that starts with the most central person spreads to half of the people in the network over twice as fast. The aim, in this case, was to test whether the effect of central nodes on the diffusion of information was robust even in the presence of external influences such as advertising.

Results and Implications of Advertising on Network Hubs

The results indicate that the advantage of the central node disappears quickly as external factors such as advertising increase.

With the rise of influencer marketing, the implications of this finding are high. Since consumers are perpetually being bombarded by external information, selecting the most influential member to market the brand or the product may not be as effective. The more effective route would be the “two-step flow” in which most people adopt based on influence from numerous minor opinion leaders of purely local influence, who in turn get information from mass media. While social connections remain important for the spread of ideas, products, and behaviors, the computer simulations highlight the importance of the context in which those networks are embedded. Hence, advertising, mass media, and local influencers must message coherently.

Your Pop Neuro Consumer Behavior Insights

Network Analysis aims to locate the central influencers within a population who can control the spread of information
A network of individuals communicates, forms opinions, and passes information across the network in the context of external cues
Examples of external cues are advertising, the Internet, mass media, government mandates
The influence of central nodes in a network decreases as external cues increase
Hence, brands must sync external and internal messaging to communicate with their target audience effectively

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References

Big Commerce: How to Build a Powerful Influencer Marketing Strategy in 2021, Sujan Patel
https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/influencer-marketing/#types-of-influencer-campaigns

Care.org: Somalia Food Insecurity Crisis
https://www.care.org/our-work/disaster-response/emergencies/somalia-food-insecurity-crisis/

Rossman, G., & Fisher, J. C. (2021). Network hubs cease to be influential in the presence of low levels of advertising. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(7).