BOLLOX to the tipping point and think turning points.

Years ago when i was a student i did my masters theses on Everett Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory. Today I am still gob-smacked to see so many mediocre thoughts based around the idea that if you influence the influencers the rest will take care of itself. Glad to see that this rubbish view is finally being challenged. I hated Gladwell as i thought what he was suggesting was marketing porn the sort of shit that lazy marketers looking for quick fix formulas would drool over. Even people like Earls don't talk about the original theory. What Rogers outlined fifty years ago was a number of factors that can make an idea spread. Mostly it is to do with (you guessed it) the quality of what you actually want to spread whether it's an idea or a piece of technology. It has to be innovative in the first place. Secondly once you cracked a mind blowing innovation then the quality of the network in which this idea is meant to flow needs to fulfill a lot of criteria. To oversimplify Rogers like that is a travesty but I will in two lines. 1. You must have a fucking mind blowing new, innovative, valuable and compelling idea first. 2. Then and only then you can start worrying about the quality of the connections between the people you want to take it up. In other words it's less to do with the people you are influencing and more to do with the content you are influencing them with and the quality of the pipelines between those people. Finally, if you still want a formula here are some ingredients based on Rogers for spreading stuff: 1. Demonstrate considerable advantage to everything else is out there. (Hardly going to come from your average brand / agency) 2. Show how it is compatible with what the receiver already knows. (It has to fit in or evolve an existing frame or reference) 3. Reduce complexity show how easy it is to adopt it. (not only show them and idea show them how they can work it) 4. Encourage trail. 5. Show credibility by showing observable social advantages. (This actually means you have to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE and what makes them tick instead of knowing the special yoghurt flavour of the celebrity you just hired to influence people) There were other pre-conditions for diffusion that I will not go on about here. I cannot be bothered with marketers who buy this whole influence the influencer bollox without thinking first of how they will make a better mouse trap instead of trying to simply trap people like mice.