Modern influencers descend from a lineage of influence research

Evidence

Influencers, in many ways, are extensions of past understandings of influence, advertising, and spectacle. There are precedents for today’s influencers throughout the entirety of modern capitalism. We might point toward people called “opinion leaders,” who, in the 1950s, served as intermediaries to carry propaganda from the mass media to the communities in which they lived, shaping political opinion and consumer choice. In the 1990s, opinion leaders became “influentials,” a holy grail of marketing research. If one could identify “influentials,” then one could manipulate the tastes, consumer habits, and political beliefs of civil society. Earlier, in the work of French sociologist Gabriel Tarde from the late 1800s and early 1900s, we see the source of new trends and new ideas branded as “geniuses” whom others would unconsciously and passively mimic. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 19

Categorization

• DEFINE: Traces the historical genealogy: opinion leaders (1950s), influentials (1990s), Tarde’s geniuses (1900s) — all precursors of the influencer.
• XREF: connects to: Academic metrics mirror social media influence metrics — Brooke Erin Duffy, (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love:…, 619