An article in the February 2008 issue of the ironically-named Fast Company places Columbia University Professor (and now Yahoo! employee) Duncan Watts as Chief Debunker of the Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell’s popular book and idea about the influence of, well, influencers (or, as Gladwell classifies them, Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen).

Online PR has largely grabbed on to the fact that, rather than worrying about every little blogger out there, if we just find the “New Influencers,” (let’s connect a few more dots while we’re at it. Does this link make me a Connector or a Salesman?).

Viral? Don’t Make Me Sick*
Duncan Watts performed experiments in an attempt to debunk the idea that “influentials” spread memes, but that the key to making word, whether it is news, an idea, a video or what have you, go “viral,” is to, as the article, puts it, “harness the pass-around power of everyday people–and ignore Influentials altogether.”

My big problem with this whole effort- aside from the fact that word about Watts’ theories is spreading in, um, Influential publications like Fast Company. Or, that I could bet that people are flocking to his blog to lap up whatever pronouncements he is making on the non-influence of the Influentials. Well, wait; I actually couldn’t find a blog, so we’ll have to settle for buying his newly-Influential book from the eminently Influential Amazon.com.

I firmly believe that people like to be told what to do, or what’s cool, even if they decide for themselves whether to pass on a meme’s “coolness.” And I also believe that as word spreads, lots of people hang on to a smaller group of, yes “Influentials” who become the tastemakers– or the “A-Listers”– or whatever you want to call them.

Where Watts scores is in the fact that online Influentials are vaguely defined. Who are these people and how do they influence? The everyday people mentioned above? Aren’t they influencers? And blogs and other social media are giving more and more people a voice and a potential audience.

Where he also scores is I have seen, in past clients trying to drive Web traffic, the unpredictability of who exactly ends up driving the traffic. As often as not, a blogger I never heard of drives more traffic than a Robert Scoble. that, however, does not mean we should ignore the acknowledged Influentials and the influence, indirect at times, they likely still wield. It’s just that you can’t stop there.

Influentials aren’t going away, but influence is more distributed, and it is moving. That’s the boig difference today. Some of the “everyday people” are more influential than others, and it is different for every publicity project. That’s the real challenge today.

On a lighter note, I mused recently in a “Social Media Top 5″ post about who thinks they are influencers but aren’t, and unlikely sources of influence.

* Let’s forget for now that The Tipping Point was inspired by the AIDS epidemic, and that the concept of “viral” marketing is literally akin to the spread of deadly epidemics. Maybe Christopher Penn is wrong…