Maybe the title Word of Mouse is not such a great play on words, but it is the new word of mouth.  Of course word of mouth advertising has always been a highly influential way of marketing for getting or losing customers.  The internet has changed WOM. 

Remember bookmark this page, tell a friend, or web rings?  All had the goal of getting people to return or come to a web site.  In the past, maybe 50% of people found a website by a referring link versus a search engine result. Now with the hoards of websites people have to search through and with which you must compete, seaches are an important gateway.  Search results however, don’t instill a warm and fuzzy feeling about a website – searches provide cold hard results.

Word of mouse works…

Word of mouth is powerful because it puts some reputation behind the referral. Word of mouse or some may say “viral marketing” has been around since 1997. It has evolved as the internet has grown and different avenues of opportunity have been built.

MySpace, Squidoo, YouTube and the like (social networking sites) have opened a super highway of opportunity on the internet.  Many mainstream companies have MySpace pages. 

Now there is “social shopping” – a mix between ecommerce and social networking. Sites like Crowdstorm, Kaboodle, Stylehive, and ThisNext allow users to network about shopping and products.  Ecommerce site benefit from this word of mouse and can realize an increase their conversion rate – without spending any money!

While this word of mouse avenue is relatively small now – it is likely to expand rapidly as most things on the internet tend to do.

[techtags: word of mouse, ecommerce, myspace, youtube]

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