Back when we were making <Durango: Wild Lands>, I remember the director saying that we needed to create a sense of being the mainstream trend. It was about creating an atmosphere where people felt it was 'the trend' and couldn't resist playing it. Back then, instead of the cool term 'Supersharer', we used expressions like micro-influencers. Rather than giving an ad to a single gaming YouTuber with millions of subscribers, the approach was to give ads to YouTubers around the 100k mark.
Well, enough about the old days, with the US presidential election approaching, various news stories are coming out. The term 'super-spreader? sharer? (Supersharer)' recently published in the journal Science caught my interest. Of course, in the article and research itself, it was used in a very negative context. The content was about a small number of hardcore users spreading fake news. (Original Article)
Who are the supersharers mentioned in Science? They are a small minority of users who actively spread information online and wield immense influence. According to a recent study, on Twitter, users in the top 1% by follower count spread as much as 80% of all fake news,it revealed. Their average age was 58, with a high proportion of women; interestingly, they were real people rather than automated bots,it is said.
This isn't just a story about the US. Shall we take another example? A study analyzing news comments on domestic portal sites revealed that the top 10% of users wrote over 70% of all comments. This shows that a small number of zealous users are exerting massive influence as 'supersharers' who sway online public opinion.
In a way, this might seem harmful, but I believe it is necessary for startups, enterprises, or individuals to properly identify and utilize them when promoting something. When we advertise and promote, we often target the mass public. Since the scale is large to begin with, this is not only expensive, but it is also not easy to track performance. This is where methods that were once popular, like micro-influencers and vertical virality, come in. In a sense, these are also about tailoring ads to supersharers.
So how can we leverage supersharers? Instead of a one-off approach, we need to lead them to become genuine fans of your brand or idea through continuous and authentic communication. Furthermore, offering special perks as rewards for sharing content can also be a good strategy. People sometimes mistakenly assume these supersharers are individuals with 1 million YouTube subscribers or tens of thousands of Twitter followers, but surprisingly, they are not. More often than not, they are ordinary people with fewer followers than you'd expect. Instead, it is said that friends around that person were often 1-million-subscriber YouTubers and influencers. Therefore, rather than picking a so-called famous person, winning over a well-regarded ordinary person in the orbit of famous people is a better approach.
From a content creator's perspective, if you deliver content properly to a supersharer, they will share it with both high density and frequency, and nearby influencers will quote it, creating a multiplier effect rather than simple addition. Rather than shouting vaguely at the general public, turning our eyes to influential supersharers seems to be the best way to create a sense of being the mainstream trend.