Social Media, Viral Marketing, and Network Cascades
In this article points of Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, are applied to marketing and building brand loyalty through social media. The author connects Gladwell’s concepts of Mavens, Connectors, and Salesmen to social media. Mavens are information specialists and create the story. In social media the story is a way to share brand and product information with the public and gain their interest in a company. Connectors are individuals who know a lot of people and disseminate the information; social media makes sure we are all connected and give us a platform to share information. Finally, Salesmen are those who make the initial telling of the story compelling enough that others want to share it too; brands often reach out to celebrities to be their Salesmen. When these aspects are correctly combined a purchasing phenomenon happens and brand loyalty can be created. The author gives the specific example of this effect. She decided to try a brand of baby blankets and clothes after Michael Phelps’ son was seen being carried around in during the Olympics. Then she gifted a blanket to a friend and discovered a network of people who also love this brand online. She is now extremely loyal to this brand, continues to buy blankets, and spread her love of the brand to her network.
Network cascades, specifically viral marketing, are a leading force in the phenomena described by this article. The Salesmen act as the starters and through their social media accounts (and Connectors) disseminate the information that the Mavens want spread. If the company picks the right starters than the company can start and increase the size of the cascade that happens for their product. In the example from the article, Michael Phelps’ was the Salesmen who shared his use of the product and he was not only compelling enough get the author to try the product, but to share the product with her network. Michael Phelps’ was the starter and caused the author to adopt the product and convince others to adopt it as well; he began a cascade. Salesmen and viral marketing have the ability to make people think that more people are using the product than actually are. Specifically, using celebrities is effective since people want the things that they have and believe that what celebrities use are popular or will become popular, which could increase the threshold of adoption. These are all factors that start and increase network cascades because these strategies are increasing fraction of your neighbors (or your perception of that fraction) that are using the product. This article breaks down viral marking and points out its effectiveness in building brand loyalty and influencing purchases decisions.