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A Columbia University study published in Science (2/10/06 issue) sheds light on the role that social influence can play in driving consumer demand. Researchers recruited more than 14,000 people in a study to measure the impact of social influence on the choice of songs to download.

Participants were randomly allocated to one of two experimental conditions: “independent,” in which they saw only the names of the bands and songs; or “social influence,” in which they could see, in addition to the bands and songs, how many times each song had been downloaded by previous participants.

The main finding was that social influence amplified the inequality of outcomes, meaning that popular songs were more popular and unpopular songs were less popular than when participants made their decisions independently. These results suggest that when people are influenced by what others think, do or buy, their individual choices clearly change.

The constant proliferation of choice will further exaggerate consumers’ limited capacity to discover and digest content, thus strengthening their tendency to like–or at least consider–what they think other people like. Social networking sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook, tagging sites such as Flickr and Del.icio.us, and user-generated content sites such as YouTube are increasingly exposing us to other peoples’ decisions on what they watch, listen to and buy.

The call to action for buzz marketing execs here? Exploit the emerging social media!

Once a product or service has gained a following, marketers can amplify the corresponding social influence signal. They can direct the attention of a much wider audience to the individuals or groups who are already enthusiastic about it. This strategy differs significantly from word-of-mouth or viral marketing approaches that seek to identify so-called influentials in order to solicit their endorsements.

Paul Dunay has spent more than 20 years in marketing, creating buzz for leading technology companies such as Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Avaya and Cisco. He also has delivered work for American Express, Motorola, Genzyme, Novartis, Citigroup, Cendant and Ernst & Young.

Paul currently is a Director of Global Field Marketing for BearingPoint. His unique approach to integrated marketing has been recognized as winner of the 2005 Driving Ne