Orangejack LLC

Earlier this week a book was released called The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II by Dave Balter. I finished it this morning and I have to say that it was a good read.  If you are looking for examples of how Word of Mouth has worked for various companies and individuals, it’s worth the read.

One of the more compelling stories that I enjoyed was that of Casey Kasem.   He was the first to capatialize and catapult the idea of a Top 40 list (or # Best of Something list).    Balter points to research that we, at any given time, can only have about 40 products in our mind that we are willing to talk about.  When Kasem took the Top 40 songs and played them each week, musicians wanted to be in that list.  When they were, they were talked about.  The more they are talked about, the more sales they received.

I’m convinced that web technology is allowing us to get back to Word of Mouth roots.  We can connect socially and recommend products to others more easily than before.  Our reach is more broad so our voice can be louder and more targeted.  It’s going to be fun to see where all this goes over the next immediate months and years!

If you are interested in the book, you can download a free electronic version (119 pages) or look for it on Amazon.

I finished a great book earlier this week that I think you might benefit from. It’s from one of my favorite authors, marketers, and thinkers of our day, Seth Godin. The book has quite the title: Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? I certainly had a few stares and curious looks as I carried it around.

But the book is great for anyone wanting to learn about Social Media and what new marketing looks like. Marketing changes and Seth’s premise is that the old style of marketing is like meatballs and new marketing is like the toppings on a sundae. Mix them and you have a horrible idea.

From the intro:

The meatballs are the basic staples, the things that people need, the stuff that used to be marketed quite effectively with TV ads and other mass-market techniques.

The topping is the New Marketing. MySpace, Web sites, YouTube, permission marketing, and viral techniques are all part of the magic that makes up the top of the sundae.

This is why I love web strategy. It comes out of my marketing background. I’ve spent years playing around with different websites and tools like these mostly to just see what they can do and where they fit. I come from the perspective that it’s about communicating and interacting with the audience you want to be a part of.

Seth gives many examples but I think this one speaks well of the change in a section called “The Magic of AdWords” (pg 160):

Overlooked in all the hoopla about Google is the simple power of its core revenue driver — AdWords. Those little blue boxes that show up next to each set of search results account for the bulk of the company’s revenue and growth.

Do a search on ‘Shelby Cobra’ and you’ll find several ads for companies that make replicas of the Shelby Cobra. Every day, thousands of people do this very search.

A traditional marketer buys Car and Driver ads because she’s an optimist. She believes that if a million people see her ad then maybe, just maybe, a buried desire to own a Cobra replica will come bubbling to the surface, and they’ll call her and buy a car.

The New Marketer, on the other hand, happily pays a hundred dollars for those clicks from Google. It’s a lot fewer people, of course. In fact, it’s about 0.005 percent as many. But the power of this medium isn’t ‘how many,’ it’s ‘who’. And the ‘who’ are people who have already demonstrated that right now, right this minute, they are focused on this car. And further, they’ve shown that they’re willing to click on an ad to find out more about it.

The book is small and short and so very easy to read. If you don’t have a great grasp on how marketing is shifting, you may want to pick up this book. As of this posting the book is about $16 on Amazon: Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?

Or feel free to contact me and we’ll talk more about it.