The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word-of-Mouth Marketing
According to 3COM 65% of people who bought a Palm Pilot told the firm they heard about it from another person. People rely heavily on personal recommendations and as customers grow more skeptical towards advertising, Palm Pilot deliberately created a sense of something special when it showed its product to a select group of executives who then spread the word.
Success depends on exploiting invisible networks, asserts Rosen, former marketing VP of Niles Software in Berkeley, California. There are insightful tips about what this approach means in practice. Early adopters of technology are not trusted by the rest of the population – they might be infatuated with their new tools, but others are not that easily won over. High tech champions in a company or organisation are not necessarily going to be the most influential people in a group. If a school wants PCs to be taken up, they should harness the people whose recommendations really count – it might not be the nerd.