Flexible Thinking Forum

I am a great proponent of networking, viral, social media, and word of mouth communications, in spreading a message and for creating change in the world.

I was fascinated to read over the weekend (FT magazine June 13) about how social scientists sought to recreate the legendary study by the psychologist Stanley Milgram.

In 1967 he asked 160 people in Nebraska to get a letter to a stockbroker in Boston, passing it only to someone they knew on first-name terms.

The popular story is how the letters arrive after six steps, the letters arrived – and how we are all just six handshakes away from anyone on the planet. (It is also known as the ‘Kevin Bacon’ Theory – you are only six steps from him, if you don’t know him.)

Psychologist Judith Kleinfeld when she investigated the evidence of the study however, discovered that 80 per cent of the parcels did not arrive.

Follow-up experiments seem to verify this experience; a recent BBC documentary recreating Milgram’s experiment saw even a greater attrition rate on successful deliveries, with only three out of its 40 parcels arriving.

Before you start throwing the baby out with the bathwater here, Milgram’s concept of six degrees of separation is still very valid.

The lesson here is not to disprove the theory of six degrees of separation, but the reality of the mechanics in the process; yes you are six degrees away from anyone, but for your message to succeed, you need a bulk of the traffic lights to be on Green, to tangibly establish the fact.

The lessons for viral communications campaign is, to be effective, you cannot put all your eggs into your basket, so to speak. You need a multitude of activity, probably with an attrition rate of anything between 80-95 per cent before it is successful.

When being asked about response rates for direct marketing activity, and what sort of percentage rate you should expect, I always reply: “It depends on the proposition, the quality of your database, and how you deliver the message; if I was offering a group of known contacts a gift of £50,000 from a newly acquired lottery win, communicated in a nicely written handwritten letter, I would expect to get a 100 per cent response.” (Pity the poor person whose letter gets lost in the post!)

“If however, I was a bank, offering a new credit card, with no special offers, where there was no relationship or brand awareness, I am likely to get a response of significantly less than .01%.”

The powerful lesson here seems to vindicate my passion for small step thinking and debunking the myth of the Big Idea: The Big Idea does not exist. Instead, outstanding, great ideas come from many, many small steps.

By making many small steps, and initially exploring as many different opportunities, channels and contacts as possible, you can overcome the inherent inefficiencies of the viral medium, and realize your potential success.

The theory of six degrees of separation still holds good – pass it on (but don’t just rely on one person to relay your message.)