Not too long ago, I was asked what my thoughts were on the difference between a thought leader and an influencer. This person is researching the topic, so I thought I’d do some surveying of my network.
It’s an interesting question & I knew my opinion so I asked my Twitterverse. It was exciting to see the conversation go on into the next day. And it stimulated a blog post along with the need for more twitter crowdsourcing.
Here are the responses:
barbchamberlain: @cbensen Not sure I can distinguish (quickly) between thought leader & influencer. Somehow 1st feels–more clean? Not as goal-oriented?
ariherzog: @cbensen Answering your question, @kenburbary considers me a thought leader but @adrielhampton considers me an influencer. Beats me, though.
jnswanson: @cbensen thought leaders? out front. Influencers? along side. Both are necessary.
conniecrosby: @cbensen A thought leader pulls together disparate ideas to find new thinking & directions, communicates it out to others (influencers) 1/2
conniecrosby: @cbensen Influencers are those who help to spread the new ideas, whether from the thought leaders or others. Could be same person, tho. 2/2
heatherrast: @cbensen An influencer can draw a crowd to hear his opinion. A thought leader inspires a crowd to listen, follow, adopt, discuss his work.
SocialMtgExpert: @cbensen …a thought leader be comfortable with their own way (even alone) whereas an influencer is desiring to bring others to their POV?
KTMacOnline: @cbensen a thought leader’s influence may be delayed until people get up to speed that she is on to something. Influencers’ power is now.
juliadalton: @cbensen Thought leader moves things forward and pushes innovation. An influencer, in my opinion, helps make innovations mainstream.
hyermish: @cbensen difference is thought leader has new ideas, influencer spreads ideas. Influencers can be thought leaders, but not always.
lucasclements: @cbensen Thought leaders are not dependent on crowds, influencers require them
missysisk: @cbensen to me, the distinction of an influencer is one that ignites discussion amongst a niche community.
JonBurg: @cbensen thought leaders guide/inform perception. Influencers inspire action. One person can be both, or one or the other.
skyhawke: @cbensen That’s easy. Influencers are akin to secondary research. Thought leaders are akin to primary research :-)
JonBurg: @cbensen you can be a thought leader with readership but no social echo. Influencers generate echo.
This caused us to decide that we should categorize the types of influencers. But I agree that we should let the Twitterverse do it.
JonBurg was inspired to write a blog post on the topic & offers some categories to get us started.
Let us know your thoughts. We will continue to gather the results in a Twitter-tifically method. @AriHerzog & @RyanStephens have offered to help.
There are already some themes that we can start extrapolating from these responses, but I am definitely interested in continuing this conversation.
One theme from these responses seems to be that thought leaders are out front, and that they generally benefit from having influencers to help spread their ideas.
I think the general consensus is that a thought leader can be an influencer and vice-versa, but people are not always both.
I like the notion that a thought leader could be someone flying solo cultivating and innovating ideas, but that an influencer wants to surround people around the conversation. This would be an interesting avenue to continue exploring.
Another theme I think I can extract from these results are that thought leaders inform and guide, but that the influencers are the ones that call us to action.
Lets continue this discussion. Hit me (or Connie or Ari) up via Twitter, AND make sure you check out Jon Burg’s post which explains how you become an influencer through an aggregate of multiple interactions across multiple individuals.
Your thoughts moving forward?
Examples:
Elvis Presley was a thought leader; Col. Parker was an influencer.
Walt Disney was both.
Steve Jobs is a thought leader; Bill Gates is an influencer.
Scott Sigler is both.