Two great examples of how word of mouth is changing promotion and marketing.
First, Amazon's Jeff Bezos in Wired Magazine:
Yes, more and more money will go into making a great customer experience, and less will go into shouting about the service. Word of mouth is becoming more powerful. If you offer a great service, people find out.
Second, Jason Fried on 37Signals' recent launch of Ta-Da Lists, a clever, free, online list manager that is also sharable.
In just the first 24 hours of operation, and just through blog word-of-mouth (and subsequent real word of mouth), over 2500 people have signed up for Ta-da List accounts. We haven’t even sent out a note to our few-thousand strong mailing list. 2500 accounts started from a single blog post on SvN.
How can you get people talking about your organization?
Well, I think the overlooked way to get people talking about your organization (or product, or idea) is to have a GREAT organization (or product, or idea.) Too many people skip this step. They want to take their organization (etc.) and use whatever new tool is out there in marketing world (like blogging for example) and then they expect it to just "work." They expect people to flock to them. (And, when it doesn't work, they call the tool ineffective and they typically go right back to doing things they way they've always done them.) But they've never tweaked their organization (etc.). They've never asked hard questions like "Is what we're offering worth hearing? Or worth a blogger passing it on to his readers?"
I linked Ta-Da from my blog, which spread to hundereds of readers very quickly, as it did on so many other blogs and newsfeeds. But Ta-Da didn't have immediate success because bloggers spread the word as much as it had success because it is a GREAT TO-DO LIST MANAGER.
Great things will get out into the public view. They will be passed on by like-minded people. One of the biggest changes that the interent has brought about in western culture is the ability for more people to be exposed to more great organizations... and products... and ideas... and bands... and companies... and the list goes on. Word-of-mouth is wired. It moves at the speed of your internet connection now.
How can you get people talking about your organization? Bottomline? BE GREAT AT WHAT YOU DO. Then put it in the hands of people who appreciate the fact that you're great at what you do.
Posted by: shua | January 22, 2005 at 02:40 PM
Well said. Another common mistake along this line is to have your marketing surpass your product. At the conference, I talked about how a church's public face (marketing and web) should accurately reflect the church itself. Hiring a web team to create a cutting-edge website will do little for a church that is nothing of the sort. Every church has its own style and their marketing should embrace that, not give a false impression.
Posted by: Brian Bailey | January 23, 2005 at 05:28 PM
Yes, you can create a good application and word-of-mouth will eventually spread, but not in 24 hours. Credit must go to the blog. I just launched a similar site, listango.com, that I think is quite good. Still waiting for a blogger to write about it...
Posted by: Jason | November 12, 2006 at 03:24 PM