Affinitive’s Social Media Playground

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Affinitive’s Social Media Playground

Word of Mouth and Social Media – Similar, but Different!

January 6th, 2010 by Bob Troia

tincansThere still seems to be a lot of confusion about the definitions of "Word of Mouth" and "social media" and how they are similar/different, so I thought I would kick off the year with a refresher. Put simply:

Word of Mouth is the act of people talking.

Word of Mouth Marketing is giving people a reason to talk.

Social Media is simply one of many channels for Word of Mouth to occur. Just as is a telephone. Or standing around a water cooler. It benefits from the fact that it can scale quickly due to its online nature.

The point is, they are related, but different.

Category: Marketing · Social Media

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  • Thank you for not giving us another thesis on why the two are related. I think you are right about the relation. Sending a link to someone is just as effective as telling a friend about a product. Good, quick post!
  • Since social marketing costs nothing at all other than your time even one extra sale is a good return on your investment.
  • johnmoore_womma
    love the brevity, spot-on!
  • stanphelps
    Simple and to the point. Great post Bob.
    Word of Mouth - 90% offline
    Word of Mouse - 10% social media (Facebook, Twitter and Blogs)
    The key to word of mouth marketing is to concentrate on the lowest hanging fruit . . . your current customers by creating a number of Purple Goldfish. You need to get new customers to become repeats, repeats to become frequents, frequents to be regulars and most important . . . regulars to become evangelists.
    The best word of mouth marketing is not a campaign, its an ongoing commitment to a concept called marketing lagniappe.
    #PurpleGoldfishProject
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