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30 Sep
The Power of Word of Mouth Marketing

The Power of Word of Mouth Marketing

The South Sound chapter of the Puget Sound American Marketing Association hosted an event at Varsity Grill on September 28th. Featuring Rod Brooks, CMO of PEMCO Insurance and President of WOMMA, the topic was “Word of Mouth Marketing: Creating Conversation Worthy Buzz”. I just wanted to share some interesting ideas and statistics from his presentation.

The main idea for the night was separating Social Media and Social Engagement. The first is a noun, the second a verb (and verbs are great because they show action). Social Media is the voice of the company but Social Engagement is the voice of the customer. Word of mouth marketing is all about getting your customers to talk about you; hopefully in a positive way. 54% of US adults identified old-fashioned Word of Mouth as the most important influencer of purchase decisions.

  • 93% of US consumers have at least one brand-related conversation face-to-face every day.
  • 45% have at least one brand-related conversation voice-to-voice every day.
  • 22% have at least one brand-related conversation online every day.

A 2010 and 2011 study done by Burson-Marstellar showed these interesting statistics about Fortune 100 Companies:

 2010  2011
65% are on Twitter
77% are on Twitter
54% are on Facebook
61% are on Facebook
29% use YouTube
57% use YouTube
33% maintain a blog
36% maintain a blog


A report co-authored by CoTweet and ExactTarget showed the top 5 reasons that consumers “Like” fan pages on Facebook.

  1. To receive discounts and promotions
  2. To show support for a brand to friends
  3. To get a “freebie” (samples, coupons, etc.)
  4. To stay informed about company activities
  5. For updates on future projects

The top 5 most engaging posts on Facebook are:
  1. Photos
  2. Videos
  3. Content links
  4. Open ended questions
  5. Virtual applications

Rod’s final advice for the evening was to get to know your talkers and give them something to talk about. Make it easy for them to share with others and to always remember that “Advertising is the price companies pay for boring products and service!”

You can view the slides from Rod’s presentation here.
Marketing
by Mandi Webster-Martin | 9/30/2011 1:19pm | Comments (0)

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