The Case Against Marketing to ‘Influencers’†

Forget social hubs and alpha influencers. To reach consumers, old-fashioned mass marketing might be the way to go.

Wall Street Journal, January 17, 2008 — That message, espoused by sociologist Duncan Watts, is making waves in marketing circles by refuting the notion that an elite group of taste makers spark consumer trends, reports Clive Thompson in the February issue of Fast Company (no online version available yet). The idea of the super-influencer, popularized in books like “The Tipping Point” and “The Influentials,” is compelling. But in Mr. Watts’s view, social networks are so complex that consumer trends are essentially random.