How consumers use the mediaWhen consumers want to buy a flat-screen TV, take a vacation to a place where they’ve never been, or see a movie at the local theater, who do they turn to for advice?

Their friends, family and experts.

Yet only one in four communications professonials have a word-of-mouth program in place. An article in the February issue of PR Tactics includes results from a survey called Myths & Realities, conducted by Ketchum and USC’s Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center.

It says that despite strong evidence that friends, family and experts play a key role in influencing decisions, only 24 percent of communicators have a word-of-mouth program in place.

Those programs might include:

  • A company blog.
  • Something as simple as a “tell a friend” box at your website.
  • A contest in which consumers create a clever video of how they use your product or video, upload it to YouTube and compete for prizes.
  • Encouraging customers to write a product review and post it at your website

There are dozens more ideas. Let’s hear yours.

Posted In: Blogs, Contests, Publicity on the Internet, Social networking, YouTube
posted On: 2/11/2008: 11:30 am: By Joan
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