The thing that I have found that has tipped recently would be what I mentioned in class: compact fluorescent lightbulbs. It's funny, I have been telling people that come in to the store for years about the long life and energy efficiency of the compact fluorescents, yet nobody wanted to spend the $4-$7 per bulb. It took the media, the news specifically, to get people to realize the benefits of compact fluorescent bulbs. I think that it tipped because of the news stories that were on and I heard Oprah had something about it on. I think that news reporters, and possibly Oprah too fall under the category of mavens, or maybe salesmen, according to Gladwell. News reporters find out a lot of information and they relay it to the general public. This is why I see them as mavens. I happen to know someone that was kind of an innovator to this epidemic. A manager that used to work at my store has had all fluorescent bulbs in his house for a long time. When the epidemic tipped, which was last weekend, all the early and late majority started buying the bulbs. Last weekend, our store was almost completely wiped out of compact fluorescent bulbs. This is a good example of the law of the few. The few in this case are the mavenish newscasters.
Posted by at November 30, 2005 10:03 AMThanks again for bringing up this example. I would have trouble placing the newscasters as "one of the few" because I couldn't be sure that they were passionate about spreading the word - or if it's just their job. Gladwell mentions that mavens, in particular, enjoys spreading the knowledge they acquire. Oprah, however, certainly would be one of the few. Would Gladwell agree? What do you think helped the stickiness of energy efficiency? (maybe the hurricane disasters or other events as well?) What made the context, combined with the few and stickiness, enough to make it tip?
Posted by: Aimee at December 11, 2005 5:40 PMPersonally, once i learn something that's worked for me, I want to present that with others. But there really are no absolutes when considering blogging or social media typically, for that matter.
Posted by: Arianne Gardin at January 15, 2011 2:05 AM