Winning a small influential Silicon Valley audience gives outsized online defense

Evidence

Ferriss said in an interview with blogger Derek Sivers: “I went after the audiences that read a handful of tech blogs in Silicon Valley. That was the niche I wanted because I knew that even though they represent a small number of people geographically, they are the loudest and most prolific online. By winning a fan base of 100 technophiles that spend most of their time online, then if people attack me online, … I would have other people defending it.” Ferriss strategically targets his work to members of the tech scene because they have online influence far beyond their actual numbers. The self-help techniques that Ferriss and Vaynerchuk advocate use social media invented in Northern California (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook) and reinforce concepts like meritocracy, independence, and entrepreneurship, which are highly valued within the tech scene and its global fan base. Ferriss and Vaynerchuk are self-improvement gurus in the tradition of Oprah, televangelists, and Landmark Forum facilitators, but they emphasize the technolibertarianism of Silicon Valley rather than therapeutic, Christian, or New Age principles. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 430

Categorization

• XREF: Ferriss’s strategy of targeting 100 influential technophiles resonates with the reputation-economics material from the Milgrom law-merchant readings and with influencer-marketing scale-versus-reach debates. — connects to: Silicon Valley grants status through affiliation or self-proclaimed blogging legitimacy rather than credentials — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 480; Public data platforms make hidden flattery impossible in Silicon Valley networking — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 657; Public availability can beat technical superiority in technological contests. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 730
• QUESTION: How generalized is Ferriss’s claim that small elite audiences confer disproportionate online influence? Useful as an empirical question about influencer amplification.

Broader Connections

• Silicon Valley grants status through affiliation or self-proclaimed blogging legitimacy rather than credentials #corroborates (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 480