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More On Word Of Mouth Marketing

For quite a while I have been a member of an online Word Of Mouth marketing company called BzzAgent. At first I joined, got a free book, enjoyed the book, told people about the book but never reported this back to my BzzAgent. You build “points” for the amount of bzzing you do (or something similar). From then on in I have not been able to join many campaigns (albeit a lot of them are for U.S. Residents only).
I love the concept of the site and I know that people like Seth Godin has enlisted their services to get some balls rolling. I also happen to think it’s effective, powerful and cool. So, what’s the point of this Blog entry? It shows that you can harness something as powerful as Word Of Mouth marketing and port it to the Web (unlike a lot of other mediums) – the challenge is in having a product, service or offering that’s exciting, immediate and cool enough to get the “sneezers” to do their job AND report it back. Your own “Word Of Mouth” used to come with no strings attached and it certainly never had homework. You could just say, “listen, this book rocks… buy it” and your job was done. I can’t see it being as much fun for an individual if they have to track it or have to report it back. Same thing goes for sites like Ryze or LinkedIn – I like seeing all of the people I’m connected to but I’m a little overwhelmed to take action.
Lessons? Too many choices = no choice will be made. Ask me to spread the word without me willingly joining the concept and you’ve lost me.
When it’s as simple as just telling people because they need to know what you know – that’s where the rubber meets the road. Where in your offerings is that evident and are you capitalizing on that immense power and sales potential? Because that, at its core, is where you can see Word Of Mouth Marketing working as strong as a third-party testimonial/referral. It’s the best kind of business.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.