The metaphor of epidemics or contagions for the spread of ideas, preferences, habits and more has become very fashionable in the last few years, partly as a result of Malcom Gladwell's Tipping Point, and partly because of the increasing influence of the internet on our social lives. It has led to much prefixing of marketing with words like "buzz" or "W.O.M" or "viral", and confident assertions about the targeting of "influencers". But the truth is, scientists and sociologists are still getting to grips to with this phenomenon. We still don't know, for instance, whether so-called influencers have any more influence than anyone else.
It's definitely true, however, that the field of social network analysis is important and exciting, and anyone involved in marketing needs to be abreast of it. Social networks are getting easier to study and analyse: the rise of digital communications means that we're now leaving ever-richer data trails about where we are, what we're doing and what we're thinking and of course, who we're connected to.
For a brilliant survey of what we know about social networks, look no further than this article in the NYT.
