John S. Wolfe

Social influencers cannot be ignored. They band together — billions strong — and can make or break a campaign, tarnish a brand, or catapult a product line to the top of the “I must have” consumer list. But reaching them means marketers must identify them first.

Forrester Analysts Josh Bernoff and Augie Ray developed a framework that allows marketers to identify and measure how people who frequent and share information on social media sites influence one another. The two call it “peer influence analysis.” They explained the concept during the Forrester Marketing Forum 2010 conference in Los Angeles Friday.