Word of Mouse

Word of mouse is good old-fashioned word of mouth, but with the ability to spread much faster because of the Internet. Another way to look at it is as advertising you

don't pay for. According to the marketing-by-the-book rules, if you had to promote a product or an idea, you had to pull out your wallet. You had to buy your way into people’s mind, interrupting their TV shows, using direct marketing and magazine ads.

Let me ask you this: what would you think if someone – not me, of course, I am fond of my reputation – would tell you that a big company decided to promote a huge project worth billions of dollars by just telling seven people about it? “Yeah, sure… This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard” you would reply. OK, now let me tell you – and I am willing to put my reputation on the line for this one – that this thing actually happened and the final result was that from those seven people initially told about the project (an amusement park), 350 million other people around the world learned about it. I’m talking about Universal Orlando Resort launching The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Cindy Gordon, Vice President of New Media and Marketing Partnerships decided to walk this uncharted territory and ignore the classic (and expensive) approach. The seven people she chose to first tell about the project were carefully selected among the most well-known and preeminent Harry Potter fans, very active on Harry Potter-related social media. Everything worked as planned, following a snow ball-effect. The end result: 350 million people learned about the theme park and are anxiously waiting for it to open in late 2009 or early 2010.

New Media has created a new marketing environment where old rules no longer apply. When you have a passionate fan base for your brand, the Internet is especially vital for going viral. Who is your fan base and do you already have one? I bet you do! If you are a resort or a restaurant, your fans are all those people that, after using your services, decided to return. It is up to you to find out who those people are and if there are customers that become familiar faces for your bell boy or your waitress and you don’t know their name, you have a problem!

The power of Internet makes it easier for people to fall in love with you faster. But beware – it also makes it easier for them to fall out of love with you faster. It’s a double-edged sword and you should listen constantly what’s being said about you. The best way to find out what people are saying about you is to use online reputation management. It’s a fancy expression but the core idea is to monitor what people are posting on their blogs.

For decades, the only way to spread our ideas was to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to write (or broadcast) about our products and services. But now our organizations have a tremendous opportunity to publish great content online - content that people want to consume and that they are eager to share with their friends, family, and colleagues. Word-of-mouse is the single most empowering tool available to marketers today.

 

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