Twitter Tuesday, Influence Ripples + Tipping Points

As many of you have felt by now through an increased number of Twitter followers—this past Tuesday was in fact "Twitter Tuesday".  What caused it?

Influence Ripples
Jeremiah Owyang is both connector, maven and salesman all rolled into one.  His invitation to have people add him to Twitter only to have him add them back set off a Ripple effect magnified by Techmeme, other bloggers, Facebook, Utterz and yes—Twitter itself.  There was most likely a flurry of e-mails happening behind the scene as well.  Owyang himself is a large ripple, but it was the combination of both larger and smaller ripples that made many of us feel the effect.  The overlaps of the ripples were numerous, significant and obvious to anyone who participated in this.  The way these ripples spread is both fierce and fragmented:

These concepts may seem abstract to "non participants".  But to those of us who actively participate, we see them happening on a fairly regular basis.  Owyang prefers to use a "fabric + threads" metaphor to explain the dynamics in the space—however you choose to explain the intricate spread of interaction enabled through social networks, it's obvious that a movement is afoot regardless of what tools we choose to adopt.  Businesses, marketers, designers, must understand these dynamics if they hope to exert influence themselves.  That's the bottom line.

Comments

[Todd Defren]

It's fascinating, weird and exhilarating to see these trends (a.k.a. my so-called life) played out in an elegant graphic. You continue to impress, sir.

[bender]

I wondered why I saw so many "@jeremiah owyang"s on my twitter feed.

2 comments on this post...

One, what I think is fascinating about your ripple graphic is the idea that, over time, the 4's may become larger (read: more important) on the graph. It seems like the more important the niche becomes, the less impact the major media/big voice presences will have. Agree?

Two, I'm a CD at an interactive agency, and spend a lot of time thinking about how the role of a "creative" is changing--moving far beyond copy, design, motion, or even UX expertise. Your graphic does a pretty good job of summing up what I feel like I do all day...I can recount in the last week how I've played all 3 roles both internally to co-workers (from entry to executive) and externally to clients. Seems you could just as accurately title that graphic "Digital Creative Duties."

good stuff...

[John Furrier]

You've got some great posts going on. Love the twitter analysis. Loved your "crock" of the web analogy.

[Jeremiah Owyang]

Interesting to see this from someone else's perspective, thanks David. Great analysis.

What's really going to matter is the whole fabric getting stronger as people with similar interests continue to connect and share.

[Lisa]

I was a newbie twitter on Tuesday, and on that day, my learning curve turned into a circle. Wow!!!

www.twitter.com/diettips

[Joshua James]

Excellent way to capture the multitude of methodologies employed with the use of what many deem a rather simplistic application.

[Matthew Reinbold]

Fantastic graphics to represent what happened on Tuesday. I was wondering what the reason was when my feedreader suddenly seemed to recall post-2007-SXSW-like Twitter mania. Turns out a well-connected maven was doing some selling.