The Power of Word-of-Mouth

I have been reading an excellent book that I highly recommend to anyone who wants to communicate a message to someone else, advertise a product, or as in my case get their church known in any community. Our church just moved to a new community and I found myself interested in learning how to get the word out to as many people as possible in today’s world and with today’s tools. I found this book browsing through a bookstore in an airport. The title of it is Contagious - Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger.

Then I received the newest issue of Leadership Journal, summer 2013, and one of its many articles on communicating through social media declares that we are living in a post-website world although we still need a website. The author says: “A church website is still essential but the primary ways your church will interact with people are through numerous streams of communication, including e-mail, texting and social media. Some will find your church through its website, but more than likely, they’ll find it through a friend on Facebook or Twitter who recommend the church, points to a video or story on the church’s website, or some other form of word-of-mouth communication”

Another article in the same Journal categorically states: “Social media is here to stay, and it is already the norm. It’s the reason family vacations become global broadcast events via Instagram and every popular television series has its own #hashtag to allow people to see tweets from fellow fans in real time. If you are waiting for this “fad” to pass, you’ll be waiting forever.”

I am sorry for digressing from sharing about Contagious but I thought these articles were also relevant to the subject. Berger is not at all against social media communication, in fact he encourages it but makes a very excellent point that social media communication has its limitations. What he encourages, and I will need to continue reading the book to have the answers I am looking for, is to create a sufficient “buzz” about the product or the church to encourage word-of-mouth transmission of the message, not just written. People talking to people, people sharing with people. He states that only 7% of word-of-mouth happens on-line while much more happens off-line. He gives these excellent reasons:

Reason # 1 Word-of-mouth communication versus advertising is “more persuasive” - friends trust friends

Reason # 2 Word-of-mouth is “more targeted” – we tell those who are interested or we  think are interested in what we have to say versus a wider approach.

Reason # 3 Word-of-mouth is “available to everyone” everyone can be a conduit of the message and we all speak to a great number of family and friends daily about those things we are interested in sharing.

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 (Image by Ed Yourdon available through Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License)