Death Of The Influencials - Debunking The Tipping Point
When I first saw the link on twitterFimoculous with the title “Is the Tipping Point Toast?” I thought someone was going to debunk the whole idea behind it. But what was being debunked was just the concept of roles of people involved in making a trend “tip”, and most importantly the influencer’s. Sounds terrifying to most marketers because the whole idea of finding and cultivating influencers is often the cornerstone of “seeding” viral/WOM campaigns, and as they say in the article marketers spend millions on this process.
The article is on fast company and key point of the article though is to point out that it is not the people spreading an idea that matter as much as the idea itself, and societies readiness for the idea. I think this is one of the reasons that ideas that are laser focused on a niche often succeed, it’s because the idea can be much more finely tuned to appeal the people who will initially receive it. Once it is successful in that very small niche it’s likely you will have the critical mass to get out to the broader audience you seek. It’s kind of like starting a fire, the niche is the kindling
“If society is ready to embrace a trend, almost anyone can start one–and if it isn’t, then almost no one can,” Watts concludes. To succeed with a new product, it’s less a matter of finding the perfect hipster to infect and more a matter of gauging the public’s mood. Sure, there’ll always be a first mover in a trend. But since she generally stumbles into that role by chance, she is, in Watts’s terminology, an “accidental Influential.”
It reminds me of what Jonnie Moore was saying on his blog recently about social objects:
6 Comments, Comment or Ping
erik hauser
Yep.:)
Jan 29th, 2008
neilperkin
Good post Karl. I can’t help but think that what Watts and Gladwell say is not necessarily mutually exclusive. As always, the answer probably lies somewhere between the two viewpoints.
Jan 31st, 2008
Sean Moffitt
Karl,
There’s a bit of mixed messaging in your post here. I don’t think your conclusion supports your title.
I’ll admit upfront that I have seen the infleucner model work and have seen a preponderance of eviedence that suggests people who are more connected, savvy and involved, spread messages more effectivly. Period.
Within your kindling “niche” as identified above, messages don’t just move by themselves, they need people, they need conversations and they need relationships.
Whereas I agree with you, the people advocating must be inspired to do so (sometimes based on the compellingness or exlcuivity of the niche), the more effective people within that niche are almost always the more socially gifted influencers.
Long live the Tipping Point!
Feb 15th, 2008
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