Regis McKenna long ago popularized a notion — a play on the Pareto principle — that 90% of the population was influenced by the other 10%. We see this manifested today in models that include Influencers, Mavens, Connectors, Salesmen, Persuaders, Hives, and Hubs. My favorite among these is Seth Godin’s “Sneezers” - a great metaphor for spreading something infectious.

But does this maxim really hold up? Very few people who talk about influencer models support their assumptions with data, primary research, or mathematical rigor. From where we sit (analyzing a network of over 20 million consumers), the secret to marketing in today’s media landscape – which is driven by word of mouth and consumer control — is less about identifying sneezers, and more about determining what makes people sneeze. When marketers figure out a formula for making people sneeze and apply it to a well-understood social graph, suddenly people who would not match legacy definitions of “influential” begin to contribute greatly to viral growth.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 10:01 am and is filed under Viral Marketing News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.