Top 9 Word Of Mouth Rules For Building Successful Marketing Programs
Here is a list of best practices about word of mouth marketing that we have developed and that are the base behind the successes we’ve been able to achieve for our customers. These rules are at the core of what we believe is the power of the advocate.

WOM Rule #1: Build advocacy, not buzz.
Creating and leveraging a thriving group of Advocates should be the #1 mission for your company. Advocacy is the key to business success. Companies with higher advocacy levels and positive WOM grow revenues two times faster than companies with low advocacy levels and negative WOM, studies by the London School of Economics and others have found.

WOM Rule #2: Advocates are different from fans
A fan is a consumer who likes your brand or product. Fans may be willing to join a group on Facebook. They may post something positive online about you on their blog or Tweet out news about your latest promotion or sale.

WOM Rule #3: Advocates are different than loyal customers.
Loyal customers are frequent buyers, but they are not necessarily Advocates. In fact, your loyal customers may be your harshest critics.

WOM Rule #4: You have more many Advocates than you think.
Many companies assume that only a small slice of their customers — typically less than 10% — are Advocates. This is a myth.

WOM Rule #5: Advocates Have Massive Reach
Each Advocate reaches approximately 150 people in his or her social and/or business network. We reached that conclusion by analyzing publicly-available data from social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, plus email marketing trade associations, and other sources.

WOM Rule #6: Brand Advocates are 5X More Influential than Paid Media
Why are Brand Advocates so influential? It boils down to two words: trust and reach. According to Forrester Research, 94% of consumers trust Word of Mouth recommendations. Only 14% trust online ads.

WOM Rule #7: Advocates are Your Best Salespeople
Fire your salespeople. Energize your Advocates. That sounds extreme. But consider these three points.

WOM Rule #8: Advocates are your Most Valuable Customers
Advocates are 2X to 3X more valuable than average customers, according to studies by Yahoo!, Comscore, Zuberance than others. Why?

WOM Rule #9: Know the value of every single advocate
In “The Ultimate Answer,” author Richard Owens, the CEO of customer satisfaction company Satmetrix, says a single Advocate of an enterprise software company is worth $565,000, based primarily on the Advocate’s lifetime referral value.

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If you want in on the action - join our new WOMM2.0 group on RedWire!

I joined Red Wire this week - a small Canadian venture (but growing quickly!) focused solely on the needs of entrepreneurs and on helping them get ahead in small business. They just have a nice and easy-to-use UI….I applaud you, RedWire! I want to learn the lyrics to the Canadian national anthem now.

Well, I am relieved that It’s not just me! If you have lazy hour to sit, listen, and smile; I’d point your URL to Ira Glass.

It’s a great way to get a lot of people (especially those without Outlook) to give you feedback about times (or choices) that work for them. Check it out.

http://www.doodle.ch/

I use it as a advanced scheduler for my Ultimate Frisbee Sundays group. I was sick of not knowing if people were going to make it out for pick-games. Now, I even know weeks ahead of time whether we’ve got enough for a game on Sunday. You can see my poll in action here: http://www.doodle.ch/7tm2n5umr49akanr