Whats Your Take on Word of Mouth
The folks at BzzAgent sent me a nifty book, The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II. Dave Balter writes and Seth Minkin illustrates (some fun stuff, by the way). What’s different about this book than some others, however, is that Dave LIVES this stuff. He’s in the word of mouth business.
Not BzzAgent specifically, but when it comes to “managed word of mouth,” as Dave calls it, I consider some of these plays to be something like when a liquor vendor pays someone to sit at a bar an talk about how much they love new Zima Black. And yet, that’s some of what’s taking place on the web. I’ve been circling these waters at different points over the last few years and have yet to make up my mind completely.
Balter’s point is that very few companies make a product that speaks for itself, and that guided word of mouth is just a way of helping something take root. I get that, and I think I endorse it, but here’s where I stick (and I haven’t read the whole book in detail, so maybe this is covered very well). I need to know that you’re endorsing something. I need to know that someone sent it to you. And then, I’m quite okay.
That’s how I’m handling the few things people have sent me of late:
- Nikon D60 camera. (They want it back, but I guess I can buy it off them).
- Flip Ultra.
- Garmin Nuvi 200 (this is a loaner).
When I meet someone at a conference and I pull out the camera, someone immediately comments. I then immediately reply that Nikon USA sent it to me to check it out and play with. You might notice that I’ve never blogged about the camera. But EVERY single time someone sees it, I talk about the fact it was sent to me. Ditto the Flip, the Nuvi, etc. (In context. I don’t blurt out confessions).
So, if there’s disclosure, I’m really cool with it. If not, it’s lying. (Oddly, I just searched my PDF version of the book for “disclosure” and found zero hits; searched for “lying” and got about a dozen.)
By the way, if you want a FREE copy of the book for yourself, just click that link.
So what’s your take on it? What do YOU think about Word of Mouth and how this all works?
I don’t think you should discount the book. It’s a decent read, full of ideas and arguments. I think it’s worth considering, if only to further your impressions and opinions on the matter. Me? I’m still out. Why don’t you tell me your take?
Free Pirates Dilemma Book
Matt Mason, author of The Pirate’s Dilemma has worked it out with his publisher to release his book as a free download. There’s an option to pay him a few bucks (one of those from $0.00 to $3,999,410 kind of things). So, it’s up to you how you want to participate. I highly recommend the book. I got hooked on Matt thanks to Whitney Hoffman. Download your copy of his free book here.
What I Did This Morning Instead of Blog
There’s a lot more to social media than just blogging. To be active, we must be out there listening, commenting, contributing, communicating in other ways, and reaching the people who matter to us. One one side, that’s where I’ve spent a lot of my time this morning. And I’ve been doing other things, too.
Inspired a bit by Andy Quayle’s What Did You Do Today post, here’s a bit of what’s on my plate (not counting family life):
CrossTech Media
I’ve been doing lots of stuff for CrossTech Media in anticipation of our upcoming ITEC Houston technology event, I’ve been working with Radian6 on a webinar/video series that we’re producing for a CrossTech webinar. I’m also trying to build interest and awareness of our new The Next Data Center executive briefing event, which I’m really happy about. I’m also building out events for later in the year (something about the future of work, and one about communications, and another about social software). I’m building speaking engagements now for New Marketing Summit, my event in Boston this fall. So, that’s a lot.
PodCamp
PodCamp Boston3 is coming up this summer. I’m in charge of helping raise sponsorship money to cover the venue, the wifi, the other stuff that makes a PodCamp happen. Christopher Penn and Whitney Hoffman and others do all the heavy lifting, but fundraising takes some efforts, too.
Book
I’m co-authoring a book soon with Julien Smith. We’re in the proposal stage, so I won’t say more. Book is the new “rock band” thing we say. “Oh yeah, I’m writing a book, too.” But it’s something that matters to me, so I’m putting what I can into it.
Social Media Stuff
Here’s a pretty busy bucket that I’ve run out of time to cover. But there’s where I spend a lot of time, too. What comes of this part is always interesting, quirky, sometimes business-actionable, and filled to the brim with humans. THIS is where the above stuff starts. Social media are the fields I tend, where I plant seeds, weed out things that don’t work, grow new varieties of relationships, and develop ideas that might or might not lead to business or a further sense of being helpful.
Later, I’ll cover what goes into all this, but start here. Think here. Start here. Think about how this is what social media does for individuals. Do you know that’s why my bosses hired me in and gave me a big role in changing their company? Do you know that my bosses (and I say that half joking, because I think of us as business partners with different percentages) talk to me about Twitter and Facebook and things like that every day?
If you’re passionate about social media, real business happens here, real connections and value happen here. Education happens here. It’s what you want to make of it, and it’s a powerful force for STARTING and MAINTAINING good things. It’s up to use to close what you do with it. But if you use the tools, at least you can start.
What are you doing today? How are you using social media to move the ball forward in your life? What are your challenges?
