The (Online) Tipping Point Part Two

A few weeks ago I tackled the first couple chapters of The Tipping Point and merged what I was reading to what I was absorbing online. I finally had time to knock out another hundred pages this weekend and here are some of my thoughts regarding The (Online) Tipping Point: Mavens. 

Mavens, as defined in the book, are information specialists.  They are people that we can rely on to connect us with new information about their specialty.  They know their specialty inside and out and are eager to share it with others.  Online mavens are much easier to identify than connectors and salesmen.  They are the bloggers, the social bookmarking obsessed, and the shared friends on Google Reader.

Bloggers: These mavens often collaborate with other mavens on the same topic to share their thoughts and insights with their readers.  We turn to our favorite bloggers because we trust their content, even if we have never met them.

Bookmarkers:  These mavens have built a tag cloud of specialty information from the sites that they visit regularly.  Labeling their specialty sites with keyword tags allows others to see which topics they are most familiar with. While social bookmarking sites are becoming more fragmented, the die hard users that are mavens are easy to spot.

Google Readers: I have about 15 people in my Google Reader shared feed.  I'm sure many of you do the same or have a similar RSS sharing application.  After a while, you'll begin to see that certain friends become notorious for sharing the most and best articles related to their specialty. Libby is the first to share the latest LOLcats (oh and media news!), Lindsay and Tyler know more about fashion than my brain can comprehend, and Lauren does her photo thing.  These are all off line specialties also, but they are amplified online.

Unlike connectors and salesmen, I think it's definitely possible to become a maven online but not in real life.  Someone could read every single blog/article about Twins Helmet Sundaes and make social connections and share their specialty information.  Their ability to spread their information would be limited though because of their lack of experience at being a maven off line.

Next up: Salesman and Stickiness. Hang in there. Or sit, that's cool too.