I had the opportunity for a long phone discussion with Sasha Zibreg, the driving force behind Lala Media, about my prior post “Word of mouth - Here to Stay?“. It started actually with an email I’d sent to several people, asking them if they can spot what’s unusual about the photo in that post.

Side note: Since we’re touching on that photo. Are you a keen observer? Do you have a sharp eye? If so, what is unusual about that photo? And… Why is in unusual? Just jot your answer in the comments below!

Suffice it to say, after a bit of banter we discussed some of the key issues around effective word of mouth marketing. I’m saying “effective” because it appears to me that many of us (at some point or another) don’t take the time to fully evaluate or investigate our “foundation” activities, that support word of mouth. I must say, the phone call ended up sounding more like a radio interview, as I was somewhat surprised with Mr. Zibreg’s obvious insight and professionalism in this arena.

I think many of us appreciate that a basic blog is essentially a  one to one or one to many communication venue. While blogs have the added benefits of facilitating the ability for readers to participate interactively to a certain degree (which I note many blog owners seem not to do), I  think that word of mouth is and will remain a dominant force in blog, product, service, etc. marketing. In fact, given the current trends in online marketing, it seems to me that this may prove to be “The” primary marketing engine.

Mr. Zibreg phrased it best:

“With word of mouth it’s more effective because your contact or client is able to say ‘I was there!‘ Nothing is more powerful than that. To put it another way someone is obtaining a service, product, and so on, in great part simply because they personally know the individual spreading the word. That personal connection is just as powerful. That new client will then transfer the message to the next client and so on. In a sense word of mouth is a personalized and very real ‘people powered‘ machine, where it’s individuals vouch for a product or service, personally and publically placing their trust is the message”.

But what does this mean to us as blog owners? Of what value is this when we are using blogs to further the exposure of our products and services?

In order for word of mouth to be successful, you must have a really good product, service, blog content, etc.  If high quality is not paramount (or even on your radar), you’ll experience an issue where word of mouth will work against you. Here’s a word of mouth  example if your blog does not provide high quality content:

Bob: “Hello Joe, you should visit the latest post from BloggerSavvy, it’s really good and helped me improve my blog traffic”

Joe: “That’s what you said last time and the post was terrible”

The old saying “Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me” seems rather apt. Quality is #1 - If that is not one of your blog’s mantras, then it may not reach the goals you anticipated. Joe’s response above is critical in that Bob’s credibility has “been shot”, it’s no longer effective. Not because of Bob’s opinion, rather because the blog owner has permitted poor quality content to undermine the credibility of positive word of mouth.

On the other hand a real life scenario (a client reminded me about) occurred when a client referred my web hosting services. The case in point was my obtaining a dedicated server hosting client who never visited my blog, did not know me, never visited my web site and to whom I never advertised. They purchases services purely on the personal assurances of my other client. Because this other client always experienced high quality.

As Mr. Zibreg mentioned in our chat:

“…when someone asks for a referral, they want to hear a clear YES! from the referrer, not an okay…”

In conclusion, quality and credibility must be your #1 focus.  Support the credibility of your word of mouth by ensuring you provide quality in any blogging that you do.

That’s what will get you the resounding YES!

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