Our public relations research and strategy class recently completed the book, “The Tipping Point,” by Malcolm Gladwell. The book described social epidemics and it provided clear examples of how to relay messages to target audiences.
Gladwell introduced rules and theories that he believed best described the communication process. Moreover, he illustrated concrete models of effective marketing and branding that relate with the realm of public relations.
According to Gladwell, a social phenomenon does not happen on accident. Social epidemics can often be associated with effective PR campaigns, in the sense that they both take an adequate amount of research, planning and execution. Gladwell showed that in order to effectively distribute a message, everything and everybody has to be in place.
People often underestimate the power of relationships, but Gladwell went into great detail in his book and explained how crucial it is to develop quality relationships. It is not enough to just know people anymore, in this digital age where social media is prevalent. As aspiring public relations practitioners, we are faced with the challenge of having to know the right people.
Gladwell suggested there are three key people who control epidemics that are spread via “word-of-mouth.” Those people are the mavens, connectors and salesmen; while they all play a significant role in the communication process, they also differ from one another.
The mavens and the connectors, in my opinion, serve the most important functions, which are to gather the information and target the proper audiences, respectively. The salesman differs from the maven and connector because he (or she) has to have the gift to persuade. The salesman has to be able to sell ideas, messages and products to particular audiences.
They may appear as three separate entities, but with those three people in place, messages can get to audiences much more effectively. This book provided plenty of insight on how to maximize connections with peers and co-workers in order to disperse information.
