In our hype-infested society, honest and positive word of mouth can multiply sales explosively. But for those who think it happens by chance (as most marketers do), this book will be an eye-opener.

The surprising truth is that word of mouth can be implemented as strategically as any other form of marketing--and at significantly lower cost! This is especially good news for any seller of products or services who must maximize every marketing dollar.

Central to this book is the innovative Decision Matrix, which helps readers identify who their potential buyers are and what messages those prospects need to hear from friends, coworkers, and trusted advisors. This matrix is followed by step-by-step guidance on how to construct an integrated "no vested interest" campaign that leverages all channels (including traditional media, the Internet, and PR), penetrates successive tiers of audiences, and builds sales exponentially. Marketers will learn how to:

* Target the predominate adopter type (innovator, early, middle, late, laggard) * Create the content--the actual words--needed to accelerate the process * Identify the sources and delivery mechanisms that will be most persuasive * Use a wide variety of the methods that trigger runaway word of mouth.

"In our hype-infested society, honest and positive word of mouth can multiply sales explosively. But for those who think it happens by chance (as most marketers do), this book will be an eye-opener.

The surprising truth is that word of mouth can be implemented as strategically as any other form of marketing--and at significantly lower cost! This is especially good news for any seller of products or services who must maximize every marketing dollar.

Central to this book is the innovative Decision Matrix, which helps readers identify who their potential buyers are and what messages those prospects need to hear from friends, coworkers, and trusted advisors. This matrix is followed by step-by-step guidance on how to construct an integrated ""no vested interest"" campaign that leverages all channels (including traditional media, the Internet, and PR), penetrates successive tiers of audiences, and builds sales exponentially.

Marketers will learn how to:

* Target the predominate adopter type (innovator, early, middle, late, laggard)

* Create the content--the actual words--needed to accelerate the process

* Identify the sources and delivery mechanisms that will be most persuasive

* Use the wide variety of methods that trigger runaway word of mouth."

The bad news is that I was stuck with this book on a 7 hour flight. The good news is that I had other books with me. Wow, is this a poorly written book. It is not worth my time to find out if this is self-published or not, but it probably is or it was published by a company desperate to add some biz books to their slate. For starters, the author is a terrible writer. it is painful to try to get through some of the poorly constructed sentences and paragraphs. To make matters worse, his personality comes through, which is NOT a good thing by any stretch of the imagination. He spends so much time trying to convince us about how clever he is, and patting himself on the back, and assuring us that he was the first person to come up with this theory and that idea, that it really is like being at a party, trapped in a corner, with someone who won't shut up about them self.

Also, at least two or three times he wants us to play some little game of "word-of-mouth" to help promote him and his book; trying to convince us what a worthwhile exercise this will be. Well, I'd be a bit more willing to help him if it was an exercise to perhaps spread the word about adopting dogs or spay and neuter or doing something positive and constructive. Instead, he simply wants us to help beef up his bank account. No thanks.

It is difficult to explain what would be worse - meeting the author or reading his book.

Avoid it at all costs. OR send a copy to your competition. Believe me, they won't get anything out of it, but you'll at least waste some of their time.

Spread the word --- this book sucks.

This book provides a functional introduction to the concept of word-of-mouth and what is sometimes called viral marketing. However, it definitely won't be the last book you'll need on the subject. The examples presented in the book mainly focus on larger companies with significant budgets. They also tend to have either established brands or established products. The products neatly fit into clear categories. In other words, any type of marketing campaign with a significant budget and well-written copy would have worked.

Most small businesses without a large marketing budget or pre-established brand or product won't find much of this book relevant. I find this ironic since word of mouth is generally regarded as a method accessible to smaller businesses. If you work for Coke or Dell this book is for you. If you just started a new online business or small restaurant this book is probably not for you.

Much word of mouth material I have read in the past has been great on theory, but short on practice. This book, however, is a refreshing change. It takes a no-nonsense, down-to-earth and practical approach to using word of mouth marketing in business. As a result this is a useful and handy book to have around. It is full of ideas and practical suggestions that will make a real difference in any business.

Word of mouth has never been revered as anything less than the pinnacle of marketing. Getting your customers to sell your product for you is the best possible scenario bar none. Silverman makes a great case for WOM (again) in this book and backs it up with theories, data, case-studies and conclusions. He has real world experience in generating WOM and he shows us how he did it in this book. Documenting and demonstrating how he did it is more than most of the recent books on "BUZZ" will do.

But be prepared for some limitations because no one person can have a wide spectrum of experience it is limited to what he did himself. Most of the experience is based around pharmaceuticals and getting doctors to get on conference calls with other doctors who have first hand knowledge of drugs that have worked well. If you are thinking that WOM is the ticket because it doesn't cost anything you might want to grab your wallet while you read the mid-section of this book. You will soon realize what kind of budget you'll need to get this kind of word of mouth action.

There is plenty of other great information and knowledge to glean from this little gem even if it is not in the case studies. I highly recommend this book to experienced marketers and the new business start-up.

PS I read this book in 2002 and worked through many of George Silverman's ideas in an insurance business I had. There are other books that can give you a shorter cheaper version of WOM. If you are just getting interested or just starting a new venture try Seth Godin's "The Purple Cow".

A friend told me it is a great book. I bought it. Read it. And told my friends about this book. Oops! I think I have started a word of mouth campaign for this book.

Kishore Dharmarajan
Author of Eightstorm: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers