Word of mouth advertising is the most valued form of marketing today. We as consumers are often skeptical of television, print, and internet advertisements, and at best we take them with a grain of salt. We do however, trust our friends and neighbors. How do word of mouth epidemics start? How did Hush Puppies shoes see a huge resurgence in the 1990's? A brand that was almost dead at the time was revived because a few Manhattan hipsters found the shoes ironic and started wearing them. Within the next few years, the shoes were available again in every mall in the United States. How does this happen? It wasn't the result of brilliant marketing or advertising. It was a word of mouth epidemic.

The literal definition of a maven is, "a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others." These information specialists are the type of people who subscribe to Consumer Reports. They're happy to tell you exactly what kind of TV you should buy, because they researched it.

They're the ones who call the 800 number on the back of the bar of Dove soap. You may ask, who in the world would call that number. I'll tell you who, a soap maven. Mavens pay attention to prices at grocery stores, and can tell you where to get the best deals. That's another important thing about the Maven, they share their information that they learn with others.

Everybody knows a connector. These are the people who have a special gift of being able to make good conversation with someone on an airplane, in a bar, or anywhere. Connectors know lots of people. In a sense, they bring the world closer together.

If a connector knows a maven, they can pass the information of a maven to countless people. If a connector knows another connector, who knows another connector etc., the information from a maven can be passed to easily countless people. Think in the scale of "Six Degrees of Separation".

I'm not just referring to those who are professional salespeople. I'm talking about that charismatic persuader that you know who has an indefinable quality that can somehow make people agree with them. Ideally this type of person takes the information learned from a maven and can persuade a connector, this is how word of mouth epidemics are started!