What Are the 5 Stages of Influence?

In this modern, digital age, influencing has never been more prevalent, especially on social media. So much so, being an “influencer” has become a solid, well-paying career for many young people who know exactly how to grab people’s attention and reel them in. But for those who aren’t sure about how to influence people, no matter the purpose, it’s important for you to know and understand that there are five different stages of influence: trust, understanding, proposal, agreement and commitment. Each one of the aforementioned is needed in order to successfully influence people, so let’s go through them.

Stage one: Trust

Trust is paramount when it comes to running your own business, whether you’re an influencer or a conventional business owner. Your customers and audience need to trust what you’re saying and what you’re selling. If they don’t trust your opinion or even your knowledge base on a product, service or topic, then you’re unlikely to bring in customers and audiences. If you’re looking to expand your following online or even if you’re wanting to increase leads and sales for your business, then trust is an imperative element. Without trust, the first stage in the influencing process, you’ll struggle to be successful.

Stage two: Understanding

It’s important to realise that stage two in this process will take a bit of time. It should be considered somewhat of a waiting game, so you’ll need to be patient. Rushing this stage of the process isn’t an option. A big part of this stage is understanding the people you’re pitching to. You need to get inside the mind of your audience in order to figure out what they’re looking for and what they want. 

Millennials won’t be interested in the latest TikTok trends, but they will be interested in the latest television show they can stream online, because, according to Rev, Millennials are more likely to stream things on smart televisions and binge-watch a series than send time scrolling through videos on TikTok. 

Millennials stream more television shows online than any other generation, states Rev, using platforms such as Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video. However, Millennials still like to spend time online, with their preferred platform for watching short form videos being Instagram and YouTube, causing TikTok to fall by the wayside. 

Unlike Generation Z, Millennials only really use their social media accounts for sharing things online and short-form entertainment. Where the aforementioned information might seem irrelevant, it’s actually the sort of thing you’ll need to know when you’re looking to successfully influence your audience. Look at the demographics, specifically their age and gender.

Stage three: Proposal

The proposal is used to change an individual or their behaviour. No matter what your end goal is, your audience needs to see how the topic or subject is going to link to something that matters to them. You need to draw on the understanding stage in order to make this work. Think about our needs and wants as human beings:

• We all need meaning and direction in our lives
• We all like to feel safe and secure
• We know what is expected of us and we like others to know that this is something we’re aware of
• We look for novelty and excitement in our lives
• We seek out connections with others
• We are always looking to grow and develop, whether it be in our working or personal lives
• We like to help and support people who need it

Stage four: Agreement

People are, generally, creatures of habit. Once you’ve completed the first three stages of influence, then the only other thing left to do is for yourself and your audience to agree that what you’re saying or selling is something that they’ll be interested in, or is something that they believe in. 

Once this happens, you’ve got your audience on the hook and you can then start to reel them in. As soon as an agreement is reached, metaphorically, between yourself and your audience, a plan can be put in place and that’s where the commitment stage of the influence process comes into play.

Stage five: Commitment 

This stage is rather self-explanatory. It’s the commitment that’s made between yourself, the influencer, and your audience, the “influencee”, so to speak. This is when you commit to carrying out your influential content, publishing videos, photographs, articles and other forms of content that your audience would appreciate. This ensures accountability as well as reliability and trust.

Kumo is a dedicated digital marketing agency with over twenty years’ of experience in the industry. We have a team of highly-qualified experts who are able to carry out a wealth of different services, including SEO, PPC, content writing, website design and more. Whether you’re looking to set yourself apart from your competitors or simply want to appear higher up in the search engine results, the specialists here at Kumo will always be on hand to help. For more information, get in touch with a member of our friendly, professional team today – we’re always pleased to hear from you.