Leveraging “Weak Tie-Ins” to Market Your Early-Stage Business

I read with interest Malcom Gladwell's most recent article in The New Yorker, "Small Change: Why the Revolution Won't be Tweeted". (You may remember a previous article of his asserting entrepreneurs were predators, which inspired a few JumpStart blogs (The Best Entrepreneurs Are Predators, Seeking CEO*, and A Lion, a Predator, and a Jerk Walk Into a Bar) and is an idea we continue to reference). His thoughts are provocative and, perhaps oddly, always relevant in some way to entrepreneurs. Mr. Gladwell's premise is that real, hard, social activism - his example being the Greensboro, NC Woolworth sit-ins from the 1960s - cannot occur via Twitter, despite recent media coverage and expert opinion indicating otherwise (with the most common example being protests in Iran). (I even wrote a blog about that at the time). His suggestion is that Twitter and Facebook are ways of organizing "weak tie-ins" -- those connections which don't require much emotional commitment or risk. He suggests that Facebook allows you have connections with acquaintances, those people with whom you'd have no ongoing connection without the tool; real connections and real friendships exist without the tool. I think many people would agree with this point (despite the fact that I know there is data reflecting that online connections are as strong as offline connections when it comes to big social media users). But aside from the implications to individual relationships, the bigger point - and one I think is most interesting from a marketing perspective - is that organizing, and encouraging, people to act can only occur through social media vehicles if the action required is low-commitment and relatively easy. There are many examples of exactly this: stories of people buying their dinner from the taco truck, donating $10 to Haiti (or fill-in-the-blank cause), and/or helping their friends get $5 off a purchase that are legendary and frequent. The thought, though, of leveraging the "weak tie-in" is a helpful principle for thinking about generating publicity and spreading marketing messages for your early-stage or startup company. A few implications that come to mind for me:

1. Social media works well for spreading low commitment, highly action-oriented messages: promotions, contests, event publicity, small dollar amount fundraising, etc. Your objective is to get visibility with as many people as possible, and the benefit to them is obvious and requires low commitment. Using social media to spread critical information that you expect or need people to remember is harder as it requires more commitment.
2. The great thing about "weak tie-ins" is that many people are willing to create one. If you feel that your marketing mix meaningfully includes a lot of promotional, low commitment and highly action-oriented messages, creating your social media community far and wide via Twitter and FB can make sense. You can engage a lot of people, build that "weak tie-in" community quickly, and send messages more quickly than many other vehicles.
3. As you think of various social media vehicles, the one advantage to LinkedIn is that there may be a higher percentage of followers who are more strongly committed. Are there messages, discussions, or brand-building content that you want to distribute? Perhaps LinkedIn is the strongest vehicle for that. Promotions, contests, and similar action-oriented messaging feels out of place there. (Or, perhaps it's that the way those messages are typically sent that feels out of place. I'm sure there's an innovation in how that is done that would be completely appropriate for LinkedIn. If you have done it, or seen some, please share).