Marketing podcast with Andy Sernovitz (Click to listen, right click and Save to download)

Andy Sernovitz, CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association ( WOMMA ) stopped by the Duct Tape Marketing podcast to talk about his book, apply named book - Word of Mouth Marketing : How Smart Companies Get People Talking.

Everybody's talking about word of mouth (yes that was intended) these days and if you've been marketing a product or service long you know that people talking to people, in loving ways, about your product or service can be a powerful thing. The name of the game for the typical small business is trust and few things build it like the solid recommendation of someone who already has a prospect's trust.

Andy's book points out the fact that while word of mouth marketing has been around a long time, new marketing tools allow, as Ben and Jackie call them " Citizen Marketers ," to fan and spread the flame of both good and bad press. New media tools are driving some would be marketers to devise campaigns to create favorable word of mouth marketing. While I think a good publicity stunt or other tactic to get people talking can be an effective tool, real word of mouth marketing is usually one of the most honest forms of marketing you can practice.

It's not necessarily easy to create the buzz of word of mouth, but Sernovitz does a great job of uncovering the winning formula employed by some great companies

Andy's a great practitioner as well - see this recent post about Andy's book launch .