Understand what INFLUENCE and INFLUENCERS are
I decided to write a little article to help you understand the word INFLUENCER a little better. I see it being thrown around and used out of context. There is a big matrix we exist in and we need to be conscious of what things influence what we do. Who has influence over the other, what kind of influence you have and to perhaps help you navigate how to life your life according to this complicated mix of variables
I have put an illustration showing the scope of the various influences. This is not to box your thinking but help you understand which band you sit in and how you can brach out into other bands of influence if you hope to grow to change the world one day!
Global Influence
This is the type of influence you will find at Presidential level. Imagine the decisions made that affect your life on a daily basis. Trade agreements, the purpose of governing bodies like UN. Funding, legacy ownership and strategic or joint influence of countries as regional blocks like AU, SADC.
Legislative Influence
Politicians come in various forms with a recognised hierarchy. Information, influence is achieved in what we call the halls of power. There is a lot more knowledge on what is going on in a global context and laws are crafted with varying agenda’s melting into the overall agenda.
Lobbyist Influence
There is a layer of those balancing the corporate interest with the political interest. There is a convergence at this level of who wants what for X to happen so that X has benefit from X outcome. There is a lot of compromise but the basic issue is creating a win win situation for the politics and corporate interest.
Corporate Influence
Within the corporate machinery there are relationships between businesses. How they look at the industry players as a whole. Among the various CEO’s and Boards and the Stock exchange there is a very highly mobile set of decisions and influences in existence.
Trade Influence
I every trade is an ecosystem of experts and companies and suppliers. For example when i was a nurse the pharmaceutical companies would do events or visit the nurses and doctors to talk about their products.Or in the TouriZIM sector where I currently work there are agents, guides, general managers and suppliers regulatory bodies for each sub sector.
Media Influence
The way the news works or media will be strange for people to understand. Yes journalism works but for the most part what you are consuming is well put together press releases and events with press. This is the less investigative part. Most media will shape the thinking or ideologies you may have more than you think.
Religious Influence
Various religions basically have the pulse of the moral centre of society. They give us the sense of what is right or what is wrong on a mass level.Their teachings and motivational sessions are there to influence the behaviour at community level.
Community Influence
At each community there are various things that bring us together. Theres school groups, neighbourhood groups, residents associations, home owners. Communities at lower levels have the ability to mobilise and achieve great things that serve the immediate communities and have influence on other communities. This is one of the most powerful parts of the entire matrix.
Celebrity Influence
Celebrities create communities of their own based on their art, craft, sports, media, business. The communities they create can have a strict set of rules or can just exist as a grouping of people who like the same thing. Celebrities often do not use this community beyond ticket sales and album sales as anything else can be complicated to this ecosystem as it is often built on stranger and no realistic connections are made to do more meaningful activities.
Tabloid Influence
There is influence created using the power of celebrity but this activates the worst in people. It is based on taking the morality and presenting a pseudo realistic type of honesty through expose. This form of influence will have great numbers of people it attracts but causes a herd of pitchfork mentality. Its a highly stressful world in which you could be the next one called witch.
Personal
This is by far the most important type of influence that exists but the least used. This is the area of free will and making up your own mind to do what you like regardless of who is watching and living towards your own dreams. This form of influence allows you to take the best or the worst of the world and internalise it to your ecosystem. It has to be noted that it is all up to you and which of the circles of influence I mentioned that surround you. The truth is that we all have separate brains but we can all log into the brain of someone else to influence us, thats a choice. You can choose not it log in but invariably you do if you feel aligned to another influence.
In conclusion at each stage of influence there is a certain code of conduct a social contract existing and leadership. at each level leadership at each level has influence to be effective in its own band or figure ways of qualifying to be at the next stage of influence. For example a celebrity may not have the power to convince people to go on holiday as much as an industry approved AGENT who books on mass for commissions because of their trade influence. An agent may then ask a celebrity to help create an image for the Agent to be able to close the deal. The celebrity would not be able to have the influence to do this transaction on their own. However even that agent has to work with those with Corporate influence like the Hotel Groups who have their infrastructure for an agent to exist or that company cannot exist without the legislative influence a lobbyist might have convinced a Govt to put a certain tax structure of registration process. So for example for me to be able to have a part in the the touriZIM conversation I had to be part of a trade of restaurants or boutique hotels or be a celebrity chef and trainer or else else Celebrity was just not enough!
If you have any questions lets discus maturely in the comments