Was recently chatting with Stacy Miller of Farmers Market Coalition about the book, The Tipping Point. She was asking if I thought it had relevance to our work. I found this quote from the author that explains what I think makes it useful to read, although with a caveat that we are not trying to start a social epidemic in markets, but to actually make long lasting economic and behavior changes. So limited relevance.
In any case, the language is useful to see how one might use word of mouth to spread a piece of your message…

it takes theories and ideas from the social sciences and shows how they can have real relevance to our lives. There’s a whole section of the book devoted to explaining the phenomenon of word of mouth, for example. I think that word of mouth is something created by three very rare and special psychological types, whom I call Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. I profile three people who I think embody those types, and then I use the example of Paul Revere and his midnight ride to point out the subtle characteristics of this kind of social epidemic.