Online influencers and gatekeepers role in social media strategy

I sat down with Guilhem Fouetillou from Linkfluence over the weekend and spent some time analyzing a map of influential websites in the fashion and lifestyle sector. It's fantastic to see this information visualized enabling communities and link patterns to be easily understood.

One the interesting learnings was the ability to identify Gatekeepers who held positions of influence in two or more online communities. A good example of this is a French fashion blog written by Illustrator Garance Doré. Already a huge influence in her native France, she has recently started writing in English and has quickly became a darling of the English and American fashion communities.

Below is a detail of the map that demonstrates how she sits in an influential position between the two major global fashion communities with hundreds of people linking to her blog:

The fact she's dating Scott Schuman who writes The Satorialist helps too! As The Guardian says … "Together they are the best thing to happen to style since American Vogue editor Grace Coddington".

Regardless, influencers like Doré now become critical to any outreach strategy for brands wishing to appeal to British/American or French audiences. Social Media Analysis becomes an essential tool for any planner of PR, Marketing and Communications initiatives.