"The average person isn't buying toothpaste becuase someone famous is, but they do drive escalades and hummers because they saw it done by "influencer's"''

I think Watts' point is that the influencers are not part of some special core sect of mavens and connectors, but simply people within one or another social sphere who, for whatever reason, happen to get attention. It's more random that Gladwell suggests.

(I tried reading the book, but just didn't have the attention span and it went back to the library before I finished it. I think I skim-read about half of it.)