Early Adaptors Not So Freaking Important

All of you lame, "viral marketers" please take note:

"Science News has a remarkably clear and concise article on a study that looked at how ideas spread through social networks. It found that under most circumstances a critical mass of more easily influenced people, not 'opinion leaders', are key to making ideas popular."

This is key:

The upshot of the study, Dodds says, is that "in the end, you don't have control over how people spread your message." The best way to increase the odds of person-to-person transmission of an idea is to make it a good idea and to give it "social worth," he says. "Some things are just fun to talk about."

Science News via Mindhacks