The Influentials

Marc López Plana a parte de estar muy metido en el ámbito político, es miembro de la asociación DNODUS que promueve proyectos digitales en el ámbito de la política y la ciudadania. Carol Darr es profesora adjunta de políticas públicas en Harvard. Se dedica a analizar las influencias de las nuevas tecnologías en los nuevos perfiles de votantes como los votantes en blanco o los abstencionistas. Good evening Carol Welcome to Barcelona this nice place in Europe. It's your first time in Barcelona It is. Thank you for inviting me. It's a beautiful city. I want to ask you about influentials. That is your research I think. Yes. I want to ask you about what is the real origin of your research? There was a book that came out about 3 or 4 years ago called "The Influentials" And the title of the book says it all. It say: One american in ten tells the other nine who do vote for, what to buy, where the vacation,... They are The Influentials and it was written by the president and the vice president of a survey research firm who said: "We've done 30 years of research and after survey after survey, after survey, we've come to realize that 10% of the population are the opinion leaders and we call this opinion leaders: Influentials At George Washington University we took that methodology and apply it to politics. And what we found was in contrast to the general population, when 10% of the people are Influentials, 69% of people involved in online politics are Influentials. Really interesting, but what is the real definition of Influentials? The Influentials are the people who are the big networkers. They were the people in high school who were on the school newspaper, and on a sports team, and in the band,... When they are young parents they are people involved in teachers association,... They are people who's laps extend beyond home and family. They are people who are out there. Why it is always corporations who identify first needs, trends and innovations and politics join them after? Because so much more money is involved in corporations. You know, McDonalds spends more in a year on it's comercials than Obama, McCain and every other candidate in the primary will spend all together. Yes but politics is about people. Is about money too. It is, but corporations and selling their products it's about people and even more money. But as socially with both they are selling a product. Both selling a product! With this Influential's book which is become the bases of the hottest trend in comercial marketing. This world of mouth marketing The people who did it were working for corporations. They were the ones who were paying for. What George Washington Univeristy did was to take that methodology and apply to politics. To what extent candidates to the US Presidency are using your study on the influentials to make more money or have more votes. They are both using it. Then in 2004 campaign, when study first came out called: "Online Political Influentials" George Bush's campaign sais it used "The Influentials" book and out research as the bases of their campaign. So.... Bush's campaign used it and more broadly what out study did was to change people's attitude, campaign attitude, and the presses attitude about the nature of an online audience. Before our study people had regarded them as a bunch of pimply-faced 18-year-old living down on their basements. And our study saw it was just the opposite. It was the most influential people in their comunities. who were on the Internet. What about Obama? Is Obama's team using your research about Influentials? I think everybody uses that research because it changes people's understanding. I don't wanna take too much credit. Obama is doing well on the Internet because of his unique personal characteristics. In the fact that he understands it. But the candidates who do well on the Internet are candidates who are either very carismatic or have a compelling message or both. And he is ver carismatic so he is naturally someone who would do well on the Internet. And my last question for you is What are your recomendations about Influentials for the Spanish politicians? When you reach Influentials you reach everybody else. It is the quickest way to get a message out through out a community it's to persuade the people who are the opinion leaders the trend setters. And those opinion leaders tend to be on the Internet. Because they are comunications experts. They are always reaching out for technology that let's them comunicate. So, again, If you want to reach everybody the best way to do it's to reach them through the Influentials. Best way to reach them is on the Internet and through other technology. Thank you very much Carol Thank you for inviting me, Marc