Weak Links

Just picked up a(nother) new report from the US on WOM. Check it out and download here.

I picked up this comment on the report from Dani Marino, who talks about a concept called Social Persuaders and Influencers or SPIs. SPIs are people with large, active and many social networks. They have persuasive power and they love to talk about products and services. And they are 10% of the market...

As with a lot of stuff on WOM, there does seem to be an obsession with finding those important broadcasting types. Or social connectors as Gladwell calls them.

Find them, seed your message into and across their social networks and watch the dollars roll in. That'll be WOM wrapped up. Bring on the YouTube, Myspace, Tribe, MOG, Rateitall and Faceparty seeding campaigns with clever and humourous content! 7% positive buzz and 1% growth or so the LSE tell me.

But it seems to me, that people forget a few key things:

• Messages at best travel in a superficial way - instantly consumed and disposed of. ideas on the other hand have a chance of sticking - although they will probably be re-appropriated and become out of the control of the initial originator
• And as a proper reading of network theory will tell you (including the tipping point): For stuff to travel the receivers in the network / community have to be receptive. it is not enough to have loads of SPIs / broadcasters (or whatever we call them) chatting. People have to listen and want to take on or act on a dissipated idea. For an idea to travel through communities knowledge of the way in which information is exchanged within those communities is critical for success.

To have a chance of planning for an idea to spread socially requires a deeper understanding of linguistics, semiotics and ritual - within and across different communities.

It means understanding the weak links in a community and across communities as well as the so-called strong links of the SPIs / broadcasters (that everyone else is probably bombarding with rubbish viral messages anyway)