Marketing Jargon: What does Word-of-Mouth Mean in the Digital Age?

When I ask businesses how new customers find them I have always heard the answer “word-of-mouth.” It’s still the most commonly cited method for customers newly discovering

products or services. What has changed, however is that word-of-mouth is really “person to person” communication.

Word-of-mouth still happens in person, of course, but even more often, and with vastly more people, person to person marketing is occurring via social platforms.

Do you Know Who the Connectors Are? How about the Mavens?

In his very famous book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell defined what he calls “connectors” —  the people who “link us up with the world … people with a special gift for bringing the world together” and “mavens” —  the people who “link us up with the world … people with a special gift for bringing the world together.”

The way that word-of-mouth marketing works in person is even more important to pay important to when considering social platforms.

As a business, when you look at your Facebook fans or your Twitter followers, can you identify the connectors? How about the mavens? How will you tap into the power that those “mouths” represent to your business to make strides toward your business goals?