Social media influencers are relative – there are no people influential to all listeners. Some people cling to broadcast era ideas that some people are universal influencers. The reality is, influence is relative. It’s only within communities where you are known and your expertise is respected.

LinkedIn persistently tries to tell me who are influencers for me, but despite their tremendous stores of data on me, what they’re showing is not personalized. The fact is, they’re incorrect about who influences me.

Just as we’ve seen with the spending power of niches in works like The Long Tail so influence works the same way. There are communities of 20 people where 1 person has great influence, who has zero influence elsewhere. This is how influence works.