28 people to call

Today I was speaking about buzz marketing at "Komin" in Gothenburg, an annual event for communication professionals organized by graduate students in communication at Göteborg University. Besides speaking I also surveyed the audience about their connectiveness.

Some may remember the test from The Tipping Point. 200 family names, randomely selected, are given to the participants who then mark out how many persons with the names they know.

In The Tipping Point the avarage number was 31. My audience scored 28. However, unfortunately I suspect some participants didn't get that multiple names count. I am pretty sure the number would be at least 33 if  everybody had got it right.

The interesting part though is not the avarage number. When Malcolm Gladwell ran the experiment he found that the range between the lowest and highest number was enormous. And once again: The lowest score was 5 contacts. The winner had as much as 77!!!

People are very differently connected. Some people seem to be veritalbe network hubs, while others know very few. If  you would like to get your buzz around - be sure to identify the 77-guy.

I only hope he or she liked my lecture.

Congratulations to the students who made a great job and ran the event with excellence. You definately can be proud.