In Malcom Gladwell’s excellent book the Tipping Point there is a very interesting chapter called ‘The Law of the few’ which is very important from a social media perspective. He argues that there are 3 types of people that are useful for spreading ideas through word of mouth.

Connectors – A connector is someone that knows everyone and is great at linking people together. They have special social power because of their extensive network. When linking up with connectors don’t always assume that the quantity of connections is the only factor to consider, you need to consider the quality of these connections also.

Mavens – A maven is someone that has a lot of information on products and services and passes on this information. If you look at statistics up to 90% of recommendations for products or services from friends are trusted and up to 60% of recommendations from people you don’t know are still trusted. Having mavens spread these recommendations is an excellent way of getting your product purchased.

Salesmen – These are the type of people that try to persuade us to buy a service or a product when we are not convinced. You know the way sometimes you walk into a store for a tie and end up coming out with a suit. How many times have you said “That was a really nice sales guy”? What you really mean is “That was a really good sales guy”.

So if you’re on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn today really think about the people you are connecting with. Take a good look at their network and who they are connected with, look at the messages they are communicating.

If they are connectors they will have lots of connections but are these quality connections?

If they are Mavens they will tweet a lot but are their tweets about making pizza at home or key data that is relevant to your audience? Get the quality right now, start off slowly with the right connections and build over time.

I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this, what do you think? I really want your personal opinion. What is it? What type are you?