Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point (2000) is mostly about viral marketing and social networks. I'm surprised I read a book about such things, but it wasn't bad. It's written to be easy and popular rather than rigorous, so if you're familiar at all with the theory of networks, then there might not be a lot of truly new information here. The charming anecdotes that illustrate the ideas are the reason for its popularity.
I found myself recalling, with dread, my high-school years; navigating various social cliques, trying to emulate the cool kids, then shortly there-after consciously trying to be as opposite as I could. There's a lot of ugly stuff wired into our instincts as a tribal animal. But, like it or not, that's how we are.
MG identifies three special types of nodes in these social networks. Most obviously, there are connectors, people who seem to know everybody. They are the classic highly connected nodes. Messages propagate quickly through social networks with the help of connectors. Mavens are experts in some area who act as information brokers. Salesmen are charismatic persuaders. Due to the special properties of these personality types, MG derives the "Law of the Few", which boils down to this: Get connecters, mavens and salesmen on your side and the sheep will follow. Well, OK, he doesn't come right out and say, "Sheep".
- connectors, highly connected people
- mavens, people who are especially rich in information and who act as facilitators
- salesmen, persuaders
Many of the folks we know and love in technology fit these personality types. The maven appeals most to me because they have a genuine interest in being helpful and in subverting the hype and finding the real deal. Most of us engineers are a little more cynical about the salesmen.
Messages themselves have properties that help them spread. Stickiness might come from the message itself or its packaging. Our psychology is such that we're much more receptive to ideas delivered in the right context, as exemplified by the broken-windows theory of law enforcement.
Most of MG's examples are from fashion and marketing. Two are about trendy shoes. DeeDee Gordon, a marketer that helped the Airwalk brand gain popularity in the 1990's sounds like the role model for William Gibson's cool-hunter Cayce Pollard from the novel Pattern Recognition. Now that I mention it, that's another book I might not have read if I knew how much it had to do with marketing, but a good one.
Just for the record, I rode a skateboard and never owned a pair of Airwalks, though I don't imagine I'm immune to manipulation. And it is manipulation because it's seeking to influence you for someone else's gain, rather than your own. That's the parasitic aspect of marketing.
MG tries to transcend marketing. He brings in suicide, smoking cessation, and cancer awareness. But, he keeps circling back. Even the one political theme he talks about, freeing tibet, worthy cause though it is, is sufficiently distant to be safe. It would be too bad if the main result of these ideas was more effective ways to sell trendy consumer crap to lemming-like mainstream losers. But, I don't mean to sound harsh. It's a good book. I just don't like marketing.
How about tapping our social networks and tribal instincts to spread messages about individual liberty, being a good person, working for justice, living beyond consumer junk-culture, or making the world a better place? Too bad, MG avoids any really revolutionary tipping points.
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