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July 11, 2008
More on why online WOM matters
Here's why: 61% of respondents to a recent survey said they check review sites, blogs and other customer feedback forums before buying a new product or service.
Furthermore, 80% of those people said online word of mouth influenced their purchase.
Put into perspective, the 1% Rule holds that only about 1% of the total number of visitors to a community where content be created, like Wikipedia, Yelp or CitySearch, will actually do so.
This means 1% of your customers could be influencing 61% of your prospects.
For any business that serves at least 100 customers per week, especially content-savvy Millennials, monitoring online word of mouth has graduated from a future to-do, to a must-have.
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Quote: "This means 1% of your customers could be influencing 61% of your prospects."
I find this to be a misleading statement; whilst it may be true that 1% are creating the content - as a collective they will be reflecting the social norms of that community. To put it succinctly: 'If it's already been said - why say it again?' The content creators are only half the story; the community is the other half.
Great article. We'd have to agree that WOM is increasingly more and more important for today's businesses. People are more hesitant to spend their money but with a good reputation by those around them -- they are far more likely to become a customer!
Concerning traveling, I think WOM is relevent if reputation is negative. Positive feedbacks are not enough to help people making their choice.
