Faster Than A Speeding Bullet..Not Yet
07/06/2006
During the last week or so the biz blogosphere village (there are many villages in the blogosphere) continued and expanded a conversation that 1 blogger began. The technology allowed for the voice of 1 to become the voice of many 
faster than a speeding bullet.
In the multiple villages of the blogosphere that is no longer a unique happening. The people in the communities interact with each other as neighbors at a block party. However, just as finding the right dentist, or fastest dry cleaner or best pizza can be a challenge when you move into a new home, finding communities of like interested people may be difficult for someone new to the blogosphere.
Eric Kuntz, Marketing Excellence experienced the fragmentation of the biz blogosphere when he 'moved in' a few months ago. But then Eric saw something interesting happen " ... suddenly, a few players emerged that substantially changed the marketing social blogging network. I have been trying to think about their role in terms of the first law of an epidemic, the “law of the few”.
Eric did a bit of borrowing from Malcolm Gladwell's book Tipping Point and framed his insights using Gladwell's concept of Connectors, Mavens, Salesmen (or saleswomen!). David at Logic + Emotion put together a wonderful graphic including mindmap that illustrates the idea. Here are Eric's first draft people. I say first draft because in any community roles shift and change. I am honored to be included.
Connector: Ann Hadley, MarketingProfs Maven: Mack Collier, Viral Garden Salesmen (& women!): David Armano Logic + Emotion /Toby Bloomberg, Diva Marketing / Eric Mattson, Marketing Monger
The real interesting part of Eric's post is this ->
"The risk for vibrant blogging communities is to be “trapped” in the blogosphere, which can quickly limit their epidemic effectiveness. So what will it take to transform this emerging community into a viral marketing network beyond the blogosphere? Who are the right mavens, connectors and salesmen to make this happen? One opportunity is to identify the “few” that are able to bridge the gap between mainstream and blogosphere."
Eric's ideas mirror my thoughts. I've frequently said that until the message bubbles into the mainstream the influence will be limited. It's beginning to happen. But certainly not faster than a speeding bullet. My two cents .. part of the answer will be the marketing profs like Alex Brown at the University of Delaware and Robert French at Auburn who are not only teaching the next generation of marketers about the importance of social media but how to do it right.
Perhaps with a few more Alex Browns and Robert Frenchs - and you and I continuing to do the work we do - the gap between mainstream and blogosphere will happen f
aster than a speeding bullet.
Technorati Tags: Eric_Kuntz, HP, Blogpshere, Tipping_Point, Blogs, Social_Media, Communities, Business
