“Us” as in the blogosphere, people who are contributing via blogs, twitters, groups, etc. People who are in top 100,000 list. When we talk about Word of Mouth, we think of getting the word out to the (“they”?) A-list bloggers. Fast Company has an interesting piece which debunks the theory that a select few “key influencers” matter more than “the rest of us.”
“Is the Tipping Point Toast” is an interesting read. The article is based on the work done by Duncan Watts of Yahoo Research. According to Watts:
It [achieving marketing success through influentials] just doesn’t work. A rare bunch of cool people just don’t have that power. And when you test the way marketers say the world works, it falls apart.
Guy Kawasaki, comments further and says:
Spend more time and effort pressing the flesh of real customers and less time and effort on industry events and other focused PR and marketing that involves sucking up to journalists, analysts, and experts.
