My post on the Gladwellian viral network effect of the marketing blogging community triggered a number of very interesting reactions in the blogosphere, that I thought I would share. As new initiatives emerge, such as Mario's new corporate blog ranking that I was suggesting as a major next step to broadening the "epidemic", I think we are at on the onset of a significant marketing phenomenon.

Let me know if you have other ideas or are taking action to spread the virus......

1. Visualizing the tipping point - David



David did a great job of representing my ideas in a graphic combining Malcom Gladwell's concept with the viral network notion. His visual as well as Mack's top 25 list were even picked up by the mainstream media in the Boston Globe. David also suggests connecting with the Forresters of this world who are key influencers in the real world and can carry the message.

2. Influencing the marketing profs - Toby

Toby highlights the role of marketing profs like Alex Brown at the University of Delaware and Robert French at Auburn. "They are not only teaching the next generation of marketers about the importance of  social media but how to do it right".

3. Introducing blogging to the real world one person at a time - Chris

Chris commented on my Marketing Profs post: "It seems to me the first place to start would be to ask those offline folks "what don't you know?" and then introduce them to the online people who can help them fill in their knowledge gaps. That's something that the niche-nature of the blog world lends itself to nicely. Once you've done that you've started them down the path to leaving blog comments, sending emails and engaging in IM conversations with the online folks. It's only a short step from there to get them blogging on their own and contributing to the conversation".

4. Keep at it and they will come - Peter  

Peter also commented on my Marketing Profs post: "I think we keep on keeping on as other marketers gradually adopt the technology. Search ads used to be risky bets compared to online display advertising. Today, search and email are mainstream while rich media and behavioral targeting are getting there. I doubt avatars will ever make it, but in-game advertising will".

He also raises an intriguing point on how to organize the community: "but what does a "healthy" marketing blogging community look like? If the other 99% of marketers were actively blogging, would it be a lively and engaging discussion, or a cacophony of "thought leaders and gurus"? And, as more voices emerge, how can we filter?"

5. The 3 step approach - Mario

Mario developed a very elaborate theory, that I am reproducing in its entirety here:

I believe the answer to this question is two-phased. Primarily, I believe that the blogosphere offers a great way to share & transfer ideas among all marketers, and we are still at the early stages of its evolution . Spreading the “epidemic” to corporate marketers is, in my opinion, the next step before we can cross over to the remaining marketers. Here’s how I think that can be done (3-steps):

1. Formation of “Corporate blog communities”:

Marketing blog communities need to be formed around corporate environments. In the recent past, I’ve seen many high-profile blogging initiatives launched by major corporations such as Microsoft, IBM, Sun Microsystems etc… What this does is it creates thousands of corporate bloggers. The first step is the aggregation of marketing blogs within each of these corporate blog communities to form islands of viral communities. At this stage a great sharing of marketing concepts among corporate peers would take place.

2. The rise of Marketing “Scobles”:

Even though Microsoft has thousands of bloggers, there was only one Scoble. So for a myriad reasons, a few corporate bloggers will emerge from the chaos to represent the “voice of the company”. Likewise, the corporate marketing blogs from each corporation will see the rise of a “Marketing Scoble” from among their ranks — one whom everyone trusts as the ‘Marketing Source’ within the company.

3. Inter-networking between the “Marketing Scobles” and the “Mavens”:

This last step is the most important and fascinating to me. The Marketing Scobles of the world, need to share ideas with the rest of the Marketing bloggers of the world. This would entail a seamless transition of marketing concepts/ideas from corporate marketers to the 1% of current marketers blogging, thereby leading to Marketing Nirvana.

The second phase of spreading the marketing “epidemic” would involve the creation of live events that will bring together marketing influencers (bloggers et al) from all over the globe. Kind of like a Web 2.0 Conference for Marketers.

6. Put the message in the mainstream - Mack

Mack recommends to put the message in their hands using the channels they interact with. "Mainstream marketers aren't reading The Viral Garden, they are reading the NYTimes and the WSJ and Ad Age. This is where I think many bloggers that go to each and every blogging conference under the sun are doing themselves a bit of a disservice. IMO they need to be spending much of that time trying to get the 'real' world clued into what they already know. The 'real' world that has never heard of Doc Searls, or Robert Scoble, or Jason Calacanis (99.9% of the country really have no idea who these people are)".