Since the beginning of organized marketing programs, marketers viewed word-of-mouth as an incredibly valuable, yet uncontrollable, result of effective marketing practices.
Word-of-Mouth has grown in popularity over the past several years as a marketing and research medium. Marketers seeking to find new methods for reaching customers and communicating with them have wondered if word-of-mouth could provide a potential solution to the dwindling return of traditional marketing platforms. In recent years, a number of companies have formed, seeking to harness the power of authentic word-of-mouth. By organizing real consumers, they train them to share their honest opinions more effectively.
BzzAgent released some findings on the subject in a six-page whitepaper: The Value of Managed Word-of-Mouth Programs (229kb PDF).
Individuals who choose to participate in managed word-of-mouth programs are more active socially and spread more word-of-mouth. They are also more likely to make a recommendation in a word-of-mouth episode. Word-of-mouth volunteers do not talk about program-related products and services so much that this marketing affiliation undermines their social relationships.
Managed word-of-mouth is not manufactured or greatly different from everyday word-of-mouth. Rather, word-of-mouth volunteers naturally interface their involvement in managed programs with their normal communications. Additionally, this study shows that word-of-mouth volunteers generate more word-of-mouth overall, demonstrating that word-of-mouth marketers can harness natural word-of-mouth,accelerating and augmenting it.
Techorati tags: Marketing, Word of mouth