I have started collecting my thoughts about new and social media marketing over at my Gary Cohen blog; however, in the meanwhile I would like to share my take on the power and effectiveness of online word-of-mouth marketing.
Since the advent of commerce, engaging customers in positive experiences has time and again resulted in natural word-of-mouth. That dialog or conversation wherever it happens can make or break any entity – business, education institute, government, etc.
The Internet and especially broadband has facilitated real-time communications between like-minded consumers in communities with rapid fire distribution of opinions - valid or not. This provides great opportunities to reach further, wider and deeper into audiences that were previously too expensive to target – however it also requires vigilance in defending your brand against negative comments that can and will go viral.
Your target audience spends 4+ hours online on search engines, pursuing their passions/interests/projects and reading if not joining others in online communities based on similar interests. The discovery process and being recognized are two separate drivers. It is important for these reasons that the development of a comprehensive Online Program that reaches these audiences where, when and how they consume their information and through what media channels.
In harnessing the Internet’s ability to deliver messages quickly and reliably across a vast network of users, I believe strongly in earned media as opposed to paid media.
That does not mean that paid media is not a component of what we do, we just do it in a way that creates leverage for the earned media while minimizing the expense and maximizing the outcome.
We are not in the PR business per se in that we do not disseminate press releases – online or offline. Our programs will always have a hook and will leverage at least two of three elements – Advertising, Marketing, PR, with Promotion and Publicity not far behind.
At the core of what we do is a requirement that our approaches need to include a component that is newsworthy, blog worthy or buzz worthy. This does not necessarily need to be about a product or a service as it can be about how a brand is doing unusual things to generate awareness.
In all cases, we will look to include a call to action that could include going to the website, taking an action that helps move the person to a more engaged relationship and moves the process along.
No Comments » Posted on December 13th, 2007 by Gary Cohen
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