Malcom Gladwell provides a thoroughly researched insight into the moment by which certain concepts, trends and types of social behaviour 'tip' to become popular and from then on continue to spread. He analyses how trends in fashion start and catch on, in addition to the ways in which certain ideas can become rapidly widespread.
He concludes his theories as follows:
The Law of the Few:
Connectors: These are people who know a lot of people. To them, making and having social connections is a skill.
Mavens: A maven is someone with an extremely deep knowledge for certain things. They like to educate people with their knowledge as a way of helping them.
Salesmen: These are people who have the ability and techniques to persuade people.
In terms of social epidemics- mavens provide messages, connectors spread them and salesmen have the persuasive techniques to make us believe the messages. However, in order for any of these people to have a role to play, the original message or concept must be 'sticky'. It must be so appealing that it is worth learning about, passing on to others and worth persuading other people that it is great. Very often 'stickiness' is not actually dependent on the message itself but instead, the way in which it is packaged and portrayed.
