• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 1, 2010

To illustrate the power of various influencers, Rally's Dave Rogal provided an obligatory X/Y axis chart plotting the extremely influential Arianna Huffington on the extreme right-hand side. In the middle, he had SocialVibe founder and Online Spin columnist Joe Marchese. On the extreme left, Rogal had a picture of "Steve."

No last name was provided, but Rogal said Steve was an old friend of his, whom is an extremely influential tech buff with a small group of friends, including Rogal.

"There's all kinds of different influencers and it's incumbent on us to understand who they are," Rogal explained.

Okay, that's all well and good, but what's the practical application of that?

Rogal said to really get at the relative value of influencers, you need to do some powerful research and analytics.

"Influencer mining is becoming the new gold rush," Rogal said, offering his second sound bite of the day.

Joe Marchese (Somewhere between Steve and Arianna)