• by Masha Geller , July 10, 2003

This is a first for me. In the years I've been writing this column I've recommended everything from research reports to ad formats, but never a book. Yesterday, however, Chris Schroeder, CEO of Washingtonpost.com, gave me The Influentials by RoperASW researchers Ed Keller and Jon Berry, and thanks to a train delay that stranded me in Grand Central Station last night for what seemed like an eternity, I read most of it and decided that it's definitely worth a mention here.

The book is about the 10% of the American population that tells the other 90% what to do, what to buy, whom to vote for, where to eat, vacation, etc. - in other words, the people who either know the answer to any question you might have, or know someone who does. The Influentials is by no means uncovering any new theories (Emanuel Rosen's Anatomy of Buzz covered some of the same concepts, as did a few other books,) but it does pull everything we know into a must read.

What's most important here (and what sucked me into the book,) is that this dream demographic is particularly fond of the Internet. The book makes a good case, supported by tons of data, for integrating the Internet into advertising campaigns.

The researchers write in the introduction that magazines, newspapers, and television are still important, but today, people get ideas from more sources. "It's hard for a single medium to put a brand on the map, as television did for Revlon in the 1950s."

That's where the web comes in.

According to Keller and Berry, Americans don't buy anything without first talking to someone whose opinion they value, and "the Internet has broadened the conversation, allowing people to research purchases, post questions to companies and to other consumers, email their friends, forward web links, and develop bulletin board relationship with people with similar interests. That the Internet is increasingly important to us is, at this point, commonly accepted."

The book is distributed by Simon & Schuster.