Nooked conducted a survey that found the "influencer" segment of the market to be highly into RSS. The survey looked at the influencer set, those journalists, analysts and bloggers followed by masses of people. The survey found the majority of them were using RSS as a way to gather their information and keep track of the market.

With Big Media – the likes of ABC, CNN, the BBC – publishing content via RSS, and the blogging explosion of the last few years, it should come as no surprise that 92% of participants are aware of RSS.

87% of Nooked survey respondents use an RSS reader, or news aggregator to keep up to date on content...

These people are important in marketing. They are the mediators of the message now. The consumers whose reviews affect others. They don't just recommend anything. They do their own research. They stay on top of news to break the latest and greatest thing on the market. And they need a way to stay connected. RSS is the way for them to do that. And it will also be the same way their word of mouth gets amplified.

Here is a good example of why influencers are important:

- Two-thirds of sales of U.S. consumer goods are influenced by word of mouth, a McKinsey & Company report indicates.
- Ten percent of Americans hold the power to influence the habits of the other 90 percent, finds a Roper ASW study.
- The value of word of mouth has grown by 1.5 times, on average, since 1977, and, as a result, it is now valued about twice as much as advertising or editorial, suggests a Roper Reports Public Pulse.

Businesses need to reach influencers. It's all about viral marketing. You seed the powerful and they do your marketing for you. Viral marketing is all about leveraging the power of these influential individuals and also leveraging the power of technologies that broadcast this word of mouth: email, RSS and more.

Blogs are like amplified email, in the marketing sense. If you can get an influencers your product or service, and they like it, perhaps they'll email 5 friends and tell another 5 later down the line. Now, not only can you get that email trail going, you also have blogs. That same product review goes online and it has the potential to reach hundreds or thousands - it's not just a stagnant webpage that nobody ever sees. It goes directly to readers who trust the advice of the author, and to hundreds more from searches online.

RSS has the power to propel a marketing message to influencers, who then will use RSS to spread word of mouth in many directions, instantly.

Via Alex Barnett