This is Dave Balter's second book, (hence the Volume II) his first was Grapevine (yes, he knows). Lee Kantor turned me on to Grapevine, where Balter shared the surprising information gleaned from his business, BzzAgent, the first word-of-mouth marketing company.
In The Word Of Mouth Manual Volume II Dave continues sharing incredible value.
The book itself is unlike any other - remember the Volume II? that's the least remarkable feature. The size, paper, placement of title, author's name and photo, and the price ($45!) are all singular. On page 71 he covers the reason why paying for word-of-mouth doesn't work. (Same principle as Dan Airely, different logic.) On page 77 Balter references Duncan Watts' research at Columbia University, which shows that marketers should focus less on people who influence and more on how people are influenced. (That would be InfoMinute technology.) On page 94 (there are only 119 4" x 5" pages!) Balter uses a rolling the dice metaphor to explain the difference between viral marketing and word-of-mouth.
I'm looking forward to having that same discussion with him about the relationship between word-of-mouth and referrals.
Until then, I'd love to discuss it with you. Which is possible because Balter is giving the book away by .pdf! (He calls this the non-waterproof version.)
Can't wait to hear what you think ~ W!
Photo courtesy of Gareth Williams