The Value of Word of Mouth Marketing in the Blogosphere

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Everyone has been a word of mouth marketer at some point in time. Whether it be that brand new vacuum cleaner that picks up dirt like you have never seen before and you have to tell everyone or the new cell phone that can do everything including make you a hamburger and fries, we as human beings can keep our excitement of our favorite products to ourselves. Word of mouth marketing is a natural response to a true excitement about a service or product. Without even realizing it we become volunteer employees for the companies we are promoting.

Usually when we think of word of mouth marketing outside of the Internet but the Internet has probably been just as effective if not more effective in spreading information. In the blogosphere we usually call this a buzz. The first week I started iwebis I started a buzz called the Mass Buzz Experiment that turned out to be a great success. The reason is was successfully is because everyone benefited from the buzz in some way. As the experiment showed, a buzz throughout the blogosphere proved to circulate quickly, spark the interest of others and drive traffic to the target website.

A buzz can be promoted by natural excitement and/or by money. In the case of Mass Buzz it was promoted by a natural excitement from bloggers who wanted some free linking and traffic. Some advertisers try to create a natural and payment prompted buzz through sponsored reviews. Other advertisers send emails to blogs that might be interested in spreading the word about a product or service they offer. Since the launch of this blog I have received a number of emails from individuals and companies promoting their product or service. Much of the information I received through those emails has been shared with iwebis readers. Not only have these emails provided content for iwebis but has also introduced me to some products or services that are useful to me.

Since word of mouth marketing can be a free way of promotion anyone can prompt a buzz. Here are a few tips to anyone interested in creating a buzz through word of mouth marketing in the blogosphere.

Have a website/blog, product or service that is can be of value to consumers. People will naturally get excited about good products or service.

• Contact the right bloggers about your website/blog, product or service. For example if you have a blog about dogs then it’s best to contact other bloggers who have blogs about dogs or that love dogs.
• Don’t beg just inform. If you approach (through emails, forums or comment posting) someone else about your product or service just offer them the information and leave it at that. Don’t try to convince them it’s the best, let the blogger decide for themselves.
• Don’t be persistent. This may be one of the few times I encourage non-persistence but if you keep trying to contact someone through emails or comments and they have not responded then you may be considered a spammer in their eyes. I would say try contacting only one to three times and not with the same email each time.
• Use the blog contact’s name if they provide it. Emails that are addressed directly to the author are more likely to be taken seriously. If their name is not provided use their blog name in your introduction.
• Decide what type of blogs would be interested in your product or service and then look through directories in that category.
• For bloggers, make yourself available by including contact information on your blog.

The key here is to provide useful information to people who are interested in hearing it. A buzz comes naturally if people are excited about something.