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Who's the Leader? The study indicates that the spread of a product by word-of-mouth -- what the authors call "contagion" -- can and does happen over social networks. The study also indicates that marketers may need to re-think whom they identify as the best seeding points in their word-of-mouth campaigns.

Reputation Matters Physician 184 didn't stand out as a "self-reported opinion leader," but he did stand out in the second group. He was known widely in the local community because he was very involved with treating patients suffering from the disease, and worked tirelessly and closely with colleagues to solve problems and get things done

The use of digital is also blurring the lines between customer and seller. A few years ago people thought I was insane in facilitating a network on my lonesome on top of my day job. You join a professional association and become the VP of programming if you want to do that. Later they sought confirmation in their assessment of my insanity when I started Conversation Agent. Many are now using blogs as a dynamic newsletter to push news about their projects out. The difference between native and immigrant in the two activities above is the degree of involvement. When I started developing the network I only suspected that I would have a higher degree of interest in its success -- now I know with certainty that it's because I am at the same time organizer and leader as well as participant. Having a blog is a way to stay curious and participate in the larger conversation, not merely a way to make your newsletter interactive.

We invest the time and money into hiring and nurturing the right people, as many other companies do in their media planning - Brian Karma, Zappos director of creative services and brand marketing

you’ve got it in you DNA, whether you don’t: being able to implement the community management at all levels of a company, the 360 degrees process communities as Ross Mayfield explains, is more like an utopia for many companies that won’t be able to master the social media channel as Zappos do right now.

It’s one strategy that would work for any company,

not a company culture that many can afford to develop

the strategy is just smart: empowering people so they keep on being accurate and engaged with their customers to provide them with the best-in-class customer care, making people comfortable with buying shoes online and spreading the word thanks to the customer support.