You have a product launch coming up and success or failure depends on how far your limited ad budget can spread the word. Here's a new way to evaluate your media spend.

Much has been written about online influencers -- the people who can make or break a campaign by driving consideration with something as simple as a blog post. Some are firm believers in the influencer model, while others claim it doesn't exist.

I think it's almost undeniable. Let's take the tech sector, for instance. It's well established that a favorable review from TechCrunch or a well-placed post on Slashdot can bring your web server to its knees with the resultant influx of traffic.

We all know of someone who is influential in our particular circle, whether it be with an influential blog, an army of followers on Twitter, or the ability to reach out to friends and acquaintances via a social network. Why the heck else would all those PR guys brownnose Michael Arrington constantly?

The big boys aren't the only game on the block, however. If you think about it, just about everyone wields influence in various product categories from one extent to another. How many of you digital advertising folk are also the default IT person for your family or circle of friends, simply because people you know outside the digital media industry know your job has "something to do with computers"?

There are a lot of factors that can contribute to one's influence, including which digital communities we're a part of, how many people value our opinions, and how vocal we are when there are new developments in our lives. The modus operandi for digital PR is to identify the heavy-hitters and pitch away. But what about the rest of the market? What about the people who might influence a smaller group of people to just as profound a degree?

Behavioral targeting can be the answer here. One way to reach influencers en masse with awareness advertising is by looking at their behavior on social media sites. In order to be influential, one has to be both vocal and connected, so if we look for behaviors like posting links to social news sites or to social network profiles, this can be a start toward identifying influencers who can spread the word about your product. Looking at the number of social connections on a social networking site can also bear fruit.

One company looking to combine behavioral targeting and social media in this way is Lotame. The company wants to help monetize social networks by gathering information about types of users within social nets, including the influencers who spread the word about new products. Looking at frequent posters or the digitally connected is only one facet of the company's business, but an intriguing and helpful one.

"If a brand is launching a new product or service, the ability to isolate and target influencers will directly correlate with increased brand performance and brand awareness," according to Andy Monfried, CEO and founder of Lotame.

Running RON inventory across social networks might not be the answer to your awareness problem. Only a portion of social networkers can be considered influential enough to make a difference. But what if we're able to look at behavioral cues that can pluck those desirable networkers out of a sea of less-active accounts and abandoned profiles?

To me, this is one of the successful components of a launch campaign. With the value that can be delivered by reaching a lot of people who may find something compelling enough about your product to reveal to their friends, it makes sense to look at campaigns through this lens. Who knows how much extra mileage your campaign can earn through targeting the vocal and the connected?

Tom Hespos is the president of Underscore Marketing and blogs at Hespos.com.