Good 'ol Fashion Word of Mouth

With the bombardment of some 400-600 advertising messages per day, consumer cynicism is easy to understand. As people seek more credible opinion they turn to Social Networks, according to Damien Arthur of University of Adelaide. In a recent presentation, he quotes research which suggests the number of consumers influenced by WOM is nearly 5 times higher than that for advertising for new car purchases (71% vs. 17% respectively).

The simple but research-proven rationale for this: the motivation for WOM is about boosting status in the eyes of peers. Good advice boosts status and bad advice reduces it.

His Australian research suggests three states for WOM: Seeking opinion, Receiving opinion actively and Observing opinion passively. When others follow, the peer status of an opinion leader improves. So a key goal is to harness those opinion leaders but this is not easy.

From a communications point of view, the research confirmed what many suspected: WOM that pans is more powerful than WOM that praises. This is because more people are told and the advice is weighed more heavily from friends. That result underscores the nature of WOM as a conversation. It also implies before engaging ensure you have listened and understood where and how you can add value with your communications. Whilst few maybe speaking on a site, thousands are watching.

Some really interesting International research is emerging around how to effectively harness social networks. For instance, this study profiles LinkedIn users. And this post from Marketing Profs covers ROI of Social Media in a very pragmatic way.

A really big picture context for Communications Professionals comes from this lecture to the US Institute for PR by Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP. Download it here. Even if you only read the first few pages, this is truly inspirational.