Critical mass in social contagions is
the point where they start spreading exponentially. The speed is so
fast that spreading takes care of itself. These contagions can happen
either suddenly or slowly. An example of a sudden case was a change
in using aeroplanes after 9/11. Instead of using a plane, many people
used their own cars. Their probability of having lethal accidents
became much higher. And after 9/11, there was much more deaths in
transportation compared to the time before 9/11. An example of slow
contagion can be any product that has been sold for many years before
a big success. And then suddenly its popularity accelerates
exponentially. Social contagions have three main components: people
who spread it, stickiness of the message and the environment it
spread. This text is mainly about the people behind social
contagions.
The law of the significant few
Throughout the
history, there has been people who have had enormous effects on
others. These people are crucial for spreading social contagions and
creating social proof. Sometimes they are people who are not known to
have so much connections with other people and sometimes they are
well known all over the world or in their own field of expertise. All
these people have great social skills. They are efficient
accelerators of epidemics. Being at the right place at the right time
also matters. But it is not enough without great social skills.
Getting assistance from these people help you to accelerate and widen
the amount of listeners of your message. You can widely divide these
people into three different groups: connectors, experts, and
salesmen. Most effective of these people are some kind of
combinations of these groups.
Connectors
If you don´t know
many people, you cannot be a connector. These are the people who know
everyone. Connectors are the type of people who are natural in
getting to know new people. When you talk to them, you can be
surprised how many people they know. I am sure you know at least one
person who is like a connector. Ask his help for spreading your
message. Connectors create so called weak links between people. They
tell you that ”you should contact this person to talk about getting
a new job”, or ”you can ask this person about a car he is
selling.” Connectors are not important only because they know many
other people. It is also highly likely that they know some people who
can help you. They know the most important influencers and introduce
them to other people. These people probably know more experts and
salesmen, the other groups of people that are effective in spreading
social contagions.
Experts or mavens
Malcolm Gladwell
calls these people Mavens in his book Tipping Point. A maven means a
”one who accumulates knowledge” in Yiddish. Experts are not the
people who have a similar effect on others than connectors. Experts
are sources of information and connectors are more like the
messengers. Experts have natural tendencies to gather new
information. They figure out the best options for whatever you are
trying to seek and want to deliver them to you. They have a natural
desire to help other people solve their problems. They know the tiniest
details about the things that rest of the people have no idea.
Experts are both like teachers and students. They can also be seen as
databanks.
Salesmen
Connectors and
experts are not persuaders. They cannot change people´s minds. You
need different type of people to get people change their opinions.
These people are charismatic, they have lots of energy and you can
feel their enthusianism before you even talk to them. Salesmen are
capable of bringing rational and uniform arguments when they talk to
you. These people are not only good in giving verbal arguments to
you. They express their feelings and emotions well by changing their
physical appearance. They do all of this by timing their facial and
bodily expressions with your natural rhytm of communication. Most
successful politicians are examples of salesmen. They have an ability
to persuade you without even always having a personal contact.
Have a reasonable doubts about the
advantage of having contact with these people
Be aware of the
effects these people can have on you. All the effects are not good.
This applies especially to experts and salesmen. People who you think
are experts can be just fools in disguise. Many people follow their
messages and life and think they are real authorities. They lead
people to wrong directions. They may have lots of detailed
information to share, but have no understanding about which pieces of
their information are relevant. It is hard to find real cause-effect
relationships from complex information and events. Even real experts
are wrong sometimes. If you are not capable of knowing if these
experts are real deals, you shouldn´t listen to them. Salesmen are
very persuasive and they have power to change people´s opinions into
wrong direction. You should always be especially mindful while you
listen to them.
Next week I will
introduce you to sticky messages.
-TT
No comments:
Post a Comment