E-Fluentials 

In 1998, Burson-Marsteller identified a group of online opinion-makers - e-fluentials® - who have exponential influence shaping and driving public opinion through the Internet and throughout the offline world. Compared with the average Internet user, e-fluentials are far more active in their usage of e-mail, newsgroups, bulletin boards, listservs and other online vehicles when conveying their messages.  While they are extremely influential online, e-fluentials also spread their opinions in the offline world as well. Their families and peers regularly approach them for information, opinions, and advice on a wide range of subjects, from business and politics to entertainment and health/lifestyle issues.

Civic-minded e-fluentials are more likely to vote, attend public meetings, serve on local committees, and make speeches.  E-fluentials, who represent 10% of today's adult Internet users, have the power to affect millions of consumers' purchasing decisions through word-of-mouth, and they influence more people on more topics than anyone else in cyberspace.  The expansive effect of this powerful segment can make or break a brand, marshal or dissolve support for business and consumer issues, and provide insight into events as they unfold.  For companies and marketers, there is an urgent need to earn e-fluentials' trust, approval, and support.

Over the past nine years, we have extended our knowledge of e-fluentials with research on segment-specific influential audiences including Tech-fluentials, Mom-fluentials, and Youth-fluentials.  Each e-fluential segment is nuanced in terms of how its members influence their peers and how they can be most effectively reached by organizations.  And, for each audience, Burson-Marsteller has extrapolated a proprietary algorithm from the research that can help identify techies, moms, and kids who will be most effective in spreading our clients' messages to their peers. 

We help companies identify the e-fluentials in their customer base, create positive relationships with these e-fluentials, and target new e-fluential audiences to generate buzz about a new product, enhance customer loyalty and manage issues.  Marrying our traditional public relations experience with our proprietary research, our digital know-how, and our global reach, we offer integrated online and offline Word of Mouth campaigns to effectively harness and channel the power of the e-fluential audience.