Blasting-off blah

This week I had the pleasure and privilege of sharing a stage with Geno Church from Brains On Fire (a fine recommendation by another favorite thinker of mine).

Geno was talking about the power of WOMM (word of mouth marketing). What struck me as odd is that pretty much every entrepreneur we spoke to buys in big time to the first three words: word of mouth, but has never really seen the value in the marketing aspect of it.

Listening to what the Brains on Fire team has done got me thinking about the problem, and that’s this: For the most part we, as business owners, are passive participants in our own word of mouth campaign. We do what we do, as best we can, and hope to god that someone starts talking.

What a fucking cop-out.

If we truly believe it when we say that our businesses have been built on the back of word of mouth, then we need to get our fingers out of our arses and become active participants in the marketing part of word of mouth marketing very quick. I don’t have all the answers yet, but I believe that it’s a question worth asking; how can I get them talking? Oh, and if you think that the answer is as simple as, “Build a better product.” you’re very wrong.

Sure, we all hate spending money on marketing, but hey, talk is cheap…!