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Online Media Daily reports today on a study by ICOM — a division of direct marketing agency Epsilon — which finds that there is no universal influencer, and that consumers are influencers strictly within product categories, rather than across all categories.  In other words, just because that blogger or Twitterer has thousands of readers/followers doesn’t mean they will be influential with YOUR customers.

Then the piece goes on to note:

One of the first studies to seriously cast doubt on influencers’ limitless authority was released by Canadian research firm Pollara in mid-2008. Based on the responses of some 1,100 adults, it found that self-described social media users put far more trust in friends and family online than in popular bloggers, or strangers with 10,000 social network “friends.”

Nearly 80% said they were very or somewhat more likely to consider buying products recommended by real-world friends and family, while only 23% reported being very or somewhat likely to consider a product pushed by “well-known bloggers.”

So if your goal is to activate the people who are influential with the consumers you are targeting, shouldn’t you be looking for your influencers within those consumers’ friend networks?

Forrester retail guru Sucharita Mulpuru recently published her latest TechRadar report on Social Commerce.  Available from Forrester here.  And for free download from ATG here.

We were pleased to be included as one of a select group of vendors profiled in the report.  It’s a great resource for retailers in planning their approach to social.  Here’s the chart that summarizes it all in one place:

These charts compare the conversion rate of shoppers who open the TurnTo widget to that of those who don’t on the largest sites in our network.