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# The myth of the influencer
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2012/03/the_myth_of_the_influencer/
- Published: 2012-03-13T00:13:06.000Z
- Updated: 2015-04-08T15:32:18.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: infuence, marketing, Social Media, social media optimisation, social networks

So, to reach the public through social media, you target influencers, right? [Wrong](http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/content-shared-close-friends-influencers/233147/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com):

> Our data show that online sharing, even at viral scale, takes place through many small groups, not via the single status post or tweet of a few influencers. While influential people may be able to reach a wide audience, their impact is short-lived. Content goes viral when it spreads beyond a particular sphere of influence and spreads across the social web via ordinarily people sharing with their friends.

I think a lot of marketing and PR companies desperately want the influencer theory to be true – it makes reaching a target audience and managing the message more feasible. But I think there’s a degree of willing self-delusion here, but the true reality of the new social sphere is so very unmanageable.

Anyway, good read.