Influence, headspace, mind share – it’s all related

The concept of influence is not new – it appeared when humans first began communicating and learned that one of them knew more about something than the others. So the crowd (tribe, etc.) listened to that human. Knowledge + communication = influence.

Knowledge in and of itself, while wonderful, does not yield influence – it needs to communicate itself to others to gain influence. Over time, humans have developed bigger and bigger ways to amplify their ability to communicate knowledge. The printing press was revolutionary in its day for how it exponentially expanded the reach of an author.

Even in our lives, we’ve seen the jump from mass communication via radio and television, to social media – where literally anyone can use a social platform to build an audience.  For most businesses and people, building an audience is the payoff. As they acquire more followers, they gain influence – and that means that the one who builds the audience can convince them to do or buy things, to vote a certain way, to make peace or war, or… Well you get the picture.

What is ‘getting an audience’ or ‘acquiring followers’ often called by marketing types? Well…mind share, for one. Or headspace, to use a slightly dated term. Or influence. You are literally getting a slot in the mind of thousands – or millions – of people.

So what does this have to do with job boards? Plenty.

For a job board to succeed, it must gain influence in its chosen market. It must obtain a slot in the target audience’s mind. That slot can rest on many different types of influence, such as: ‘the largest job board in the world’, or ‘the only place paleontologists find work’, or ‘where your favorite actor found his first role’.  The job board has to obtain its slot through relentless communication, via every channel that matters to its audience. Is the movie Jurassic Park actually the reason why every paleontogist originally chose their career? Yes? Then you might consider hiring T. Rex as your spokesdino – and then pump their message through every geeky paleontolgical blog, Tik-Tok, radio show, and journal out there!

Do that long enough, and you’ll gain influence. You’ll have a share of your audience’s mind. You’ll have a space in their head. They’ll use your job board.

And you’ll be successful!

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