Mom and pop WOM

The New York Times has rooted out some excellent case studies of small businesses thriving by using social media and word of mouth. From San Franciscan Curtis Kimball, who uses Twitter to broadcast news of where his crème brûlée cart will be stationed that day, to Scott Seaman, a B&B proprieter and partner at Christopher’s Wine and Cheese Shop in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, who uses TweetDeck to search for people talking about the town so that he can engage with them to discuss the area and offer his services, these modest merchants are proving that word of mouth works for companies of all sizes.

The role of geography here is particularly interesting. WOM allows niche brands without big advertising budgets to find relevant global audiences beyond their two-bit town, but helps them to to foster visibility and loyalty within their specific local community. It can actually be easier for small businesses to adopt the flexible, personal and collaborative WOM approach than big brands hampered with internal wrangling and red tape, and Microsoft recently released a study suggesting that tech-savvy small businesses are the ones who will help spur economic recovery. Our advice to small organisations has always been to start by listening, pick your tools and do a couple of relevant things well; Samir Balwani’s post on how to use Twitter for small businesses is a great basic primer, so dip a toe in and benefit from some grassroots WOM.

Brought into the world on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 and filed under Uncategorized.