I'm skeptical about planned word of mouth efforts

In a post yesterday about the importance of seeing your clients through the customers' perspective, I wrote that word of mouth was critical to most businesses.

That's no great revelation to anyone, of course. But it is something we often forget about.

Still, I'm skeptical about programs or efforts designed to spur word of mouth artifically. I just don't think they are believable.

I'm not against referral programs, "tell a friend about us" efforts, product trials or anything like that. I'm just not convinced that they are that effective in the long term. Blogger outreach efforts seem to fall into that same category.

There's something special about "discoverability" ... that is, the importance we place on new products, services or experiences that we discover on our own. We're far more likely to share that information with others than if we are prodded or pushed to do so.

And we'll likely be more believable.

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