Noun

Pam is a coffee maven ; she knows so much about coffee.

Connectors know people—lots of people. Mavens' know about things. They know, or find out first, what is going on. Connectors, says Gladwell, need ' mavens to tell them what to buzz about.

Besides an executive sponsor, you need to find a technology maven', someone within the company who understands the new technology. A '''maven''', as defined in Malcolm Gladwell?s ''The Tipping Point'', is a person who has both information and the social skills to pass it along. The challenge in a situation such as this one is that the ' maven might be outside of IT.

The goal for any media company is to be a maven —and therefore highly adept at using multiple channels of social media communication well.