The Tipping Point : How little things can make a big difference.

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The Tipping Point How little things can make a
big difference. By Malcolm Gladwell
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The three characteristics of an epidemic

• Contagiousness
• Little causes have big effects (cumulative
  impact)
• Change happens in one dramatic moment aka the
  Tipping Point
• Ideas, products, messages and behaviors spread
  like viruses do!

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The three characteristics of an epidemic

• The best way to understand the emergence of
• New fashion trends
• The sudden uptake of new technology
• Phenomena of word of mouth advertising
• Social marketing and bookmarking on the Internet
• is to think of them as Epidemics!

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Three rules of the tipping point

• The law of the few
• The stickiness factor
• The Power of context
• Offer a way of making sense of epidemics

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The Law of the Few

• The 80/20 Principal
• Social epidemics are heavily dependent on the
  involvement of people with a particular and rare
  set of social gifts.
• Connectors
• Mavens
• Sales People

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The Law of the Few
The tale of Paul Reveres Ride August 18th 1775
-The beginning of the American War for
Independence Why was he remembered and
the other riders forgotten and why was he
responsible for the most effective word of mouth
campaign in history?
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Connectors

• People with the talent of making friends and
  acquaintances
• Occupy many different worlds and sub cultures and
  niches
• Masters of the weak tie a friendly yet casual
  social connection
• Collect people personal information and enjoy
  putting people in touch with each other
• Their importance is a function of the kinds of
  people they know.
• But how do connectors get their information
  normally?

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Market Mavens

• Accumulators of knowledge information brokers
  and experts
• Passionate about sharing that knowledge and
  wanting to help
• Have the power and credibility to provide the
  right kind of advice that provokes reactions in
  people
• But Mavens are not good at persuading people to
  take up ideas!

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Sales People

• What separates a great sales man from an average
  one is the number and quality of answers they
  have to the objections commonly raised by
  potential clients. is this the only factor?
• Persuaders, charismatic people with powerful
  negotiation skills based on
• energy,
• enthusiasm,
• charm
• likeability
• very, very powerful optimism
• something else

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Sales People

• An indefinable trait that goes beyond what they
  say, that makes others want to agree with them.
• The power of human expressions and conversational
  rhythms
• Motor mimicracy unconscious imitation
• The ability to infect each other with our
  emotions
• Falling into physical and conversational harmony
• Good sales people dictate the terms of this
  interaction.

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The Law of the Few

• The power of collaboration between these
  personality types
• Connectors
• Mavens
• Sales People
• Paul Reveres word of mouth epidemic!

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The Stickiness Factor

• The specific content of a message that makes it
• Memorable
• Creates impact.
• Turning information into personal and practical
  advice to become memorable i.e. the tetanus
  experiment
• Use of a narrative style to help tell a story
  increases the stickiness of a concept
• Measuring viewing behavior is as easy as simply
  observing how people look at your information.

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The Power of Context
The immediate context of your behavior is more
important in guiding your actions than the
content of your thoughts Fundamental Attribute
Error Diffusion of innovation theory (draw) Other
examples
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Conclusions
Law of the Few In releasing your communications
concentrate your energy and time on involving
those important people or media. They will do the
work for you i.e. optimize for Google not MSN or
Yahoo The Stickiness Factor think about how you
personalize your communication to make it
memorable and create impact i.e. speak to people
on a social level by providing information that
is helpful to make your ideas a social
experience! The Power of Context remember the
power of the group, and be clear with your
meanings by understanding the context of the
people you are communicating to.
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Conclusions
The key to learning and improvement is
performance measurement Those who are
successful at creating social epidemics do not
just do what they think is right, they
deliberately test their intuitions Remember We
are actually powerfully influenced by our
surroundings, our immediate context, and the
personalities of those around us. The slightest
push in the right direction can cause a tip no
matter how stayed or change resistant the culture.
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Putta says read the book again!