Whether you've embraced the Tipping Point and the power of Influencers to your heart, or find yourself more of a Herd-er by instinct, you should probably get yourself over to Fast Company. There's an article on the work of Duncan Watts (Is The Tipping Point Toast), and his premise that Influencers are no more influential when it comes to trends than the typical man or woman on the street.
I've covered Duncan's work before, but this is a very robust attack on some of the most basic foundations of word of mouth thinking. He's not saying the WOM doesn't work (anything but), just that the whole thing is way more random than the simplistic 'find the influencers' model currently employed.
At the end of the day, it's probably six of one, and half a dozen of the other. But well worth a read.
