The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay Books, 2002 (paperback) - 304 pages

This book was one of the first on "buzz marketing" and the power of "word of mouth."  What is unique about this book is that it looks at buzz from a social perspective.  The examples/ideas presented aren't just about business.  

Why do major changes in our society so often happen suddenly and unexpectedly?  Ideas, behavior, messages, and products, he argues, often spread like outbreaks of infectious disease. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a few fare-beaters and graffiti artists fuel a subway crime wave, or a satisfied customer fill the empty tables of a new restaurant. These are social epidemics, and the moment when they take off, when they reach their critical mass, is the Tipping Point.

Paul Revere, Sesame Street, the resurgence of Hush Puppies, New York City's crime rate, the rise of Airwalk , and the rise of teen smoking are excellent examples provided by the author.

What do you want to get out of this book?  If you want to learn how to apply “buzz” to your business I would recommend “Unleashing the Ideavirus” by Seth Godin as a better starting place.  “Anatomy of a Buzz” by Emanual Rosen is another book on word of mouth social behavior but I have not read it, and as a result, I can’t say if it is better or worse than this book.  I can say that Unleashing the Ideavirus is an excellent book with lots of business-orientation.

I personally enjoyed this book because Mr. Gladwell puts a great spin around it with lots of concrete examples.  I personally enjoyed Unleashing the Ideavirus more, because Mr. Godin’s writing style is VERY easy to read and his sole focus is business related, especially showing how online businesses can grow leaps and bounds with word of mouth marketing. 

I enjoyed this book because it dived into the logic/reasoning of how making the NY subways clean made people feel safe and caused criminal behavior to go down when the actual police budget only increased slightly.  The overall principle exposed in the book is applicable to a lot of situations and I found that reading this book caused a little lightbulb to go off in my head several times.