Word of Mouth Marketing, whatssup?

FYI- generally accepted forms of word of mouth marketing:

Buzz Marketing: use high-profile celebs, entertainment or news to get people to talk about your brand.

Viral Marketing: create entertaining or informative messages designed to be passed along in an exponential fashion via social media or email.

Community Marketing: form or support niche communities with shared interests (such as user groups, fan clubs, message boards and discussion forums); provide tools, content, and information to support the "community".

Grassroots Marketing: organize and motivate volunteers to engage in outreach on a personal level.

Evangelist Marketing: cultivate evangelists, advocates, ambassadors or volunteers and encourage them to take the lead in actively spreading the word or your brand.am

Product Seeding or Seed Marketing: place the right product in the right hands at the right time, providing information or samples to influential individuals; with the right guidance, see "Evangelist Marketing" above.

Influential Marketing: identify key communities and opinion leaders who are likely to talk about products and have the ability to influence the opinions of others.

Cause Marketing: support social causes to earn respect and support from people who feel strongly about the cause which is usually akin or adjacent to your own brand.

Conversation Marketing: spread interesting or fun advertising, emails, catch phrases, entertainment, or promotions to start word of mouth activity.

Online Brand Marketing: create a blog(s) and participate with other bloggers, in the spirit of open, transparent communications to share information of value that the blog community may talk about.

Referral Marketing: create tools that enable others to refer their friends.

YELP, help is on the way!

Yelp is all about the power of word-of-mouth, WOM in an online community format. Review everything local to share your insider tips, warn others about bad experiences, help folks who are new in town, and support your favorite local vendors.

I'm doing my part (check out my reviews by clicking on the YELP link), be sure to do yours!

Branding By Word of Mouth or the Power of the Story

Belief in a brand is the most powerful influence of all, even to the point of altering our physical sensations, mixing our own personal experiences, and reducing all we know about a brand to an easily accessible impression or perception.

Humans are social creatures. We’ve flourished on earth because we take advantage of the power of groups. And, human survival has depended on passing information from those we trust. Word of mouth has been with us from the beginning and is a key influencer in every marketing study ever done.

The closer someone is to us, the more we tend to trust their opinion. And, the more enthusiastic the endorsement, the more value it has to us. If we get a lukewarm recommendation, we probably won't run right out and take action. Our “gut” immediately decides whether the word of mouth we receive is credible and whether or not to pay attention. Studies have also shown that we alter our own memories of a brand experience depending on the opinion of others.

Brand memories are not unalterable snapshots. They get changed every time we retrieve them, altering them to fit the opinions of others and saving this altered memory. Others have such a powerful influence on our brand loyalties.

Blogs and Social Networks Foster Internet Growth

Recently published in the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's Measurement and Metrics Research Blog:

Blogs and Social Networks Foster Internet Growth
While the growth in the number of visitors to the biggest brand sites has slowed, traffic to newer sites built around user participation has soared, according to comScore analysis of recent online traffic data. Between February 2005 and February 2006, monthly visitors to these sites rose dramatically. Ranked from the most to least, the sites growing the most were:

1. Blogger.com
2. Myspace.com
3. Wikipedia.org
4. Citysearch.com

Check out the full article in the Washington Post.

I recently had the pleasure of hearing Andy Sernovitz, the CEO of WOMMA , speak at the ASAE Membership & Marketing Conference. Check out their website for archives of presentations.

Word of Mouth is the MOST Influential Form of Media for Consumers

Word of mouth is the most influential form of media in making a purchase decision. That's the key finding in the Simultaneous Media Usage Survey recently conducted by BIGresearch. The study signals a marked shift in approach as marketers look more toward consumer behavior.

According to the report, the top 10 most influential media across all ages were:
1. Word of Mouth
2. TV
3. Coupons
4. Newspaper Inserts
5. Read Article
6. Direct Mail
7. Magazines
8. In-store Promotion
9. Cable TV
10. Internet Advertising

Learn more:http://www.bigresearch.com/news/big122005.htm

Word of Mouth Marketing Association

http://www.womma.org/womnibus.htm

Awesome! Check it out! Here's a brief overview of WOMM...

Word of Mouth 101
An Introduction to Word of Mouth Marketing

Definitions
Word of mouth:
The act of consumers providing information to other consumers.
Word of mouth marketing:
Giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place. It is the art and science of building active, mutually beneficial consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer communications .

What is Word of Mouth Marketing?
Word of mouth is a pre-existing phenomenon that marketers are only now learning how to harness, amplify, and improve. Word of mouth marketing isn't about creating word of mouth -- it's learning how to make it work within a marketing objective.

Word of mouth can be encouraged and facilitated. Companies can work hard to make people happier, they can listen to consumers, they can make it easier for them to tell their friends, and they can make certain that influential individuals know about the good qualities of a product or service.

Word of mouth marketing empowers people to share their experiences. It's harnessing the voice of the customer for the good of the brand. And, it's acknowledging that the unsatisfied customer is equally powerful.

Word of mouth can't be faked or invented. Attempting to fake word of mouth is unethical and creates a backlash, damages the brand, and tarnishes the corporate reputation. Legitimate word of mouth marketing acknowledges consumers’ intelligence -- it never attempts to fool them. Ethical marketers reject all tactics related to manipulation, deception, infiltration, or dishonesty.

All word of mouth marketing techniques are based on the concepts of customer satisfaction, two-way dialog, and transparent communications.

The basic elements are:
Educating people about your products and services
Identifying people most likely to share their opinions
Providing tools that make it easier to share information
Studying opinions - how, where, and when opinions are being shared
Listening and responding to supporters, detractors, and neutrals

Types of Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of mouth marketing techniques are geared toward encouraging and helping people to talk to each other about products and services.

Common types of word of mouth marketing:
Buzz Marketing: Using high-profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about your brand.

Viral Marketing: Creating entertaining or informative messages that are designed to be passed along in an exponential fashion, often electronically or by email.

Community Marketing: Forming or supporting niche communities that are likely to share interests about the brand (such as user groups, fan clubs, and discussion forums); providing tools, content, and information to support those communities.

Grassroots Marketing: Organizing and motivating volunteers to engage in personal or local outreach.

Evangelist Marketing: Cultivating evangelists, advocates, or volunteers who are encouraged to take a leadership role in actively spreading the word on your behalf.

Product Seeding: Placing the right product into the right hands at the right time, providing information or samples to influential individuals.

Influencer Marketing: Identifying key communities and opinion leaders who are likely to talk about products and have the ability to influence the opinions of others.

Cause Marketing: Supporting social causes to earn respect and support from people who feel strongly about the cause.

Conversation Creation: Interesting or fun advertising, emails, catch phrases, entertainment, or promotions designed to start word of mouth activity.

Brand Blogging: Creating blogs and participating in the blogosphere, in the spirit of open, transparent communications; sharing information of value that the blog community may talk about.

Referral Programs: Creating tools that enable satisfied customers to refer their friends.