Surprisingly, it’s not hiring Jennifer Lopez to pose next to your car, or spending millions on a Super Bowl commercial.

No. In fact, it’s simply one person recommending a product to another person.

That, my friends, is called Word of Mouth.

Over the past decade, the Internet and social media have completely changed how Word of Mouth works.

And in one quick update called “Search, Plus Your World”, Google made Word of Mouth and social media marketing 100 times more essential.

But before we get to that, let’s take a walk back in time, to one hundred years ago, when we all lived on farms.

Frank, a local farmer, recently purchased a new rifle. Ted, his neighbor, stops by to admire the rifle.

“How’s the new rifle?” Ted asks Frank.

“Probably the best there is,” Frank replies. “I’ve had 20 rifles in my life, and this by far is the best.”

Ted’s been thinking about buying a new rifle, but couldn’t decide which to get. But because of Frank’s recommendation, Ted buys that rifle.

Word of Mouth advertising.

Flash forward to 2010. Beth and Sarah are high school friends. They’ve moved to opposite sides of the country to attend college, but kept in touch through Facebook.

Beth will be spending Spring Break in a beautiful hotel in New York City. She wants to show her friends where she’ll be staying, so she goes to the hotel’s Facebook page and shares some of the photos on her own Facebook page. “Look where I’ll be staying!” she exclaims in the photo captions.

Ashley wants to visit New York as well, but hadn’t decided where to stay. She spots the pictures Beth shared and visits the hotel’s website. She loves the look and decides to make a reservation.

Now here’s the magic of social media that differs from what it was 100 years ago: not only did Ashley see Beth’s post, but so did Beth’s 700 other friends.

Instead of a one to one recommendation, it’s now one to 700.

Word of Mouth advertising and Social Media Marketing.

And finally, let’s flash forward to the present day, with Google’s latest update: Search, Plus Your World. Now, when you search on Google, you will not only see the search results you’re used to seeing, but you will also see what YOUR friends have said and shared about what you are searching for.

Let’s look at an example:

Mary is looking for information on a dish detergent. So she does a search on Google.

As always, she sees a bunch of search results for dish detergents. But mixed in there are stories from her friends: one friend has posted before and after pictures of clothing she used a new detergent on. Another wrote a quick post saying how happy she was with that same detergent.

And finally, a third friend has shared something special: a coupon that the same dish detergent company posted on it’s profile.

Mary trusts her friends’ recommendations. She downloads the coupon and goes to the store to purchase the dish detergent.

Word of Mouth advertising and social media marketing, revolutionized.

Top companies are now engaging in social media marketing as a way to spur Word of Mouth advertising through social networks. And not surprising, it’s been working.

But now, with Google’s new update, social media marketing MUST be an ESSENTIAL part of your overall marketing and advertising plan.

Because if you’re not doing it, your competitors will be…and they’ll be stealing your sales.

Image Credit: Some rights reserved by Sean MacEntee

Believe it or not, there was a time before television. Radio was the broadcast media, and audiences found live radio ads just as ear-catching as the programs they sponsored. When TV programs started around 1940, most advertisers took what they knew from successful radio creative and tried like the devil to paste it into TV ads. Oops.

It took a few years for technology to align with creativity, but alas we finally saw the last of singing Texaco gas station attendants and Old Gold dancing cigarette boxes. Agencies and brand managers finally realized TV viewers wanted something completely different in a television ad. Good radio creative required theater of the mind, but good TV creative required doing the mental work for the viewer.

Fast forward to 2015. Here’s what you’ll probably read…

Believe it or not, there was a time before the internet when broadcast TV ruled media, and audiences found good TV ad as enjoyable as the programs they sponsored. When digital advertising was launched around 1990, most advertisers took what they knew from successful TV creative and tried like the devil to paste it into online ads. Oops.

It took a few years for technology to align with creativity, but alas we finally saw the last of the :30 second one-way interaction commercials that had been cut and paste from TV to online. Advertising agencies and their clients finally realized online viewers wanted something completely different in an online ad. Good TV required doing the mental work for the viewer, but good online creative required involving the viewer. (Think World of Warcraft)

Check back in five years and see if we were right.

Most of us know that YouTube is now the second most powerful search engine in the world after Google. (Gee, who owns it?) But it’s more than that. The powers that be at Google had the foresight to realize that just as books turn into movies, reading content online will morph into viewing it. Let’s face it, we all prefer to take the easy way out. The day will come before too long when people say, “Remember when we had to READ things online?”

With this in mind, we’d like you to enjoy our semi-freaky Brandtailers holiday video-card, which just goes to prove there’s a reason why the U.S. Postal service is going out of business. We’ve always been somewhat known for our interesting holiday cards, normally shot, printed, processed and mailed averaged about $4,500. However this cost us a whopping $52.70. Welcome to the new world!

Following is a post we wrote in January of this year, predicting Social Media would end up looking very different at the end of 2011, mainly due to the change in interest from quantity of online relationships to the quality of them. Were we right? Read the post below and let us know what you think:

JANUARY 2011:

So, the new year is just about here and you’re putting some last minute adjustments on your 2011 marketing strategy. Looking back on 2010′s social media efforts, you realize you spent a lot of time trying to gain significant Twitter followers, Facebook fans, 5-Star Yelp Reviews and Foursquare Mayors. Well? What did it do for you? Can you show it brought you more business? Did your brand awareness significantly increase? Chances are, probably not.

For what it’s worth, you’re not alone. This whole social media thing is in its infancy. Just like the marketers who were trying to figure out the best ROI for television advertising in the early 1950′s, we’re trying to figure out how social media will help us sell more thingamajigs.

That being said, we doubt as much emphasis will be put on quantity in 2011 as it will be on quality. The assumption that 10,000+ Facebook fans is an automatic  opportunity for marketing success is already an old-hat. More Facebook users are “hiding” irrelevant content on their own Facebook feeds than ever before. When asked why, over 90% say it’s due to too much irrelevant content coming at them.

The next twelve months will be a fascinating time of watching (and helping) marketers fine-tune their online brand connections to the qualitative associations that will have a positive impact on bottom lines. Having the biggest number of potential customers will be replaced by having the most reliable number of quality customers. It’s an age old process of marketing substantiation. The only thing that changes is the communication tool. Yesterday it was TV. Today it’s Facebook and friends. Tomorrow? Who knows – stay tuned. It’s right around the corner.

Think about it…

Governor Perry’s self-promotion opportunity was experienced by millions of TV viewers, just like a typical broadcast advertisement.  Perry was using the time and place to convince millions of citizens to choose him over his competition, again just like a typical broadcast advertisement. Viewers may not have expected Perry to be great, but they didn’t expect him to be embarrassing.  The same holds true for the average modern day TV advertisement. Perry destroyed his powerful self-promotion opportunity by coming to the party unprepared to give consumers what they really want – trust. The same holds true for most commercials.

If we take the time to analyze why we use our remote controls so aggressively during commercials, it’s because most ads embarrass us with their lack of consideration for our intelligence. Even more disappointing, the main reason today’s bad commercials aren’t getting Perry’s current level of negative press is because we’ve become immune to them. We expect Perry to deliver presidential capabilities in a debate, but we don’t expect commercials to deliver influential messages that make us want to respond.

In the movie Art & Copy, Lee Clow, Chairman and Global Director of TBWA\Worldwide, said most advertising today is bad because everyone involved with the creative itself is afraid. How true. The marketing committee of the product or service is so afraid of failing they won’t take chances. That’s why there’s a committee in the first place, right? And the agency is afraid of losing the account, so they wouldn’t dare suggest any potential risks. And yet, risk is where art meets influence, and we consumers are enticed to take action.

Instead, consumers end up experiencing the mundane. Add the current economy into the scenario, and there is even more fear of failure resulting in messages as embarrassing to most consumers as Rick Perry’s brain freeze is to potential voters.

Isn’t it a shame we’re used to it? I’d like to see the advertising industry take a stand for the customer, and promise them that all future advertisements will be produced to deliver compelling, interesting, entertaining, and truthful creative messages. Maybe Brandtailers will take this lead. Who says change always has to come from the big boys?

But for now…

The idea of hiring college interns or fresh, young twenty-somethings to manage social media is a hot topic these days. And a crazy one if you ask us. It’s like hiring someone to manage your TV advertising because he watches 3 times as many shows as you do. Oh, and he knows how to do everything with just one remote control. What the heck does that have to do with marketing?

Here’s what we’re hearing a lot these days…

Boss to employee: “We’ve got to get going with this Facebook and Twitter stuff. Do you have any idea where to start?”

Employee: “I’ve got no idea. Heh, unless you want to hire my wife. She’s hooked on Facebook these days. But my kids don’t even tweeter.”

Boss: “What about Cindy down in HR? She’s young. I’ll bet she tweeters. Maybe we could give it to her. She could do it a few minutes every week.”

Employee: “Yeh. She’s got a little free time. I see her on Facebook.”

Boss: “At work!?!”

Employee: “Oh yeh. All the time. But what about getting a college kid? We could hire him as an intern and wouldn’t have to pay.”

Boss: “Hmmm. Good idea. Who wants to pay someone just to do Facebook. Why don’t you check into that.”

So, let’s see.  The average business today has what is, probably, the most powerful opportunity in years to properly position and market their brand to a highly targeted and relevant audience, and they want to hand that responsibility off to a youthful, untrained kid. CAN YOU SAY CRAZY?

Oh sure, Brandtailers has interns. Great ones, hand picked from the best colleges with the best advertising and PR programs (ala Chapman University). But we don’t entrust our client’s brands to them! Yes, we get some of them involved with our clients online efforts – but only after 60 hours of training and testing and only with constant supervision, guidance and ongoing webinars to improve their talents. Even then, they’re often doing the background work, i.e. gathering research and info for interesting posts on Facebook. We do not leave a client’s online brand in the hands of anyone who doesn’t completely understand the full marketing strategy, goals and objectives of a client’s brand. The online world is not a separate place from all other brand messages – it’s  another place. A new one that has more potential to grow your brand than any other media has since television’s hay days.

If you’re a business leader reading this, please take our advice. DON’T “Just Do It”. Read a few case studies about businesses who understand the place Social Media has in marketing, and the powerful part it can play in the 21st century businesses’ success, or failure.

What equity do you offer members of your brand?

It’s all about the story.

We are symbol using (misusing) creatures- we crave meaning and how it relates to our perception of reality. Think of any memory or funny story you tell at parties- we take our perceptions of reality and share it as a narrative, with characters that have desires, who need to overcome/accomplish something in order to discover purpose or satisfaction. The stories we tell are symbols of a reality we are absorbed into and share passionately- it is innately designed within our humanity.

Communication at it’s core is symbolic. We search for the symbolic message and how it relates to the story. The cycle of “social media”-really human behavior-  longs for depth and breadth- action, momentum, a real connection.

Walter Fisher explains this in his theory of Narrative Paradigm that all meaningful communication is a form of storytelling.

We experience and comprehend life as a series of ongoing narratives (stories), each with their own plot, Fisher argues that “the way in which people explain and/or justify their behavior, whether past or future, has more to do with telling a credible story than it does with producing evidence or constructing.”

I see a direct correlation with the power of story-narrative & the adoption of YOUR brand becoming THEIR community.

When we build our communities on the credibility (ethos) of our brand with emotion (pathos) and logic/truth (logos)- it’s not only sustainable, it’s SHAREABLE.

The better the content/story- the more the members can interact and engage with media. As we continue to generate quality stories, the tribe begins to refine the community and defines the brand’s story. Each person plays a key character to the plot. The future of “membership” will become increasingly more responsible and responsive, refining the vision and demanding better stories as the community develops.

Community happens beyond the surface of transactions. Beyond the hype of gimmicks. It’s the AH HA moment when your brand becomes REAL. HUMAN. RELEVANT.

Community and the communal sharing of the message creates a story worth telling and builds the symbolic legacy- the shareable narrative.

How are you building a shareable community? How are you sharing the STORY online throughout media? What are you doing to invite characters along the plot to help write the rest of the story? When you connect the dots of the micro-blogs, tagged pictures, hash-tags, images, and campaigns- where do those breadcrumbs leave us?

The key contributor is YOU. The person managing the day to day, the logistics, the consistency. Maybe you are a supporting character or a part of a background ensemble- regardless, your role is critical and vital to the human story being told- one that resonates in the souls of your readers, followers, friends, connections, “likes”, reblogs, retweets… all are an echo of the larger narrative.

What story are you going to tell today?

Here at Brandtailers, we value Social Media which is why we asked Justin Brackett, Chief Weather Maker at SocialVillage.net and Co-founder of DevelopSocially.com,  to contribute his voice.

Story. Each of us has one to tell- especially your organization: who you are, what you do and where you are going. Nobody can tell your story better than you, it is in your DNA, culture and inside of you. And with the age of digital media, you now have, more than ever, the opportunity to tell the world about your business or organization.

Digital media is key in telling your story, yet so many organizations are now saying: “We have digital media; what now?”

These five simple steps will help guide you in curating the relevant and timely message for your organization:

Step 1: Go where your audience is.

It’s important to identify the digital platforms your target audience gravitates toward so you can meet them there. Go where your tribe aggregates. Contrary to what you may think, digital media is not just the latest craze for high school and college kids. Those 25 and over account for 84 percent of Twitter users, and the fastest-growing demographic for Facebook is people over 35. More than 5 billion pieces of content, such as videos, blog posts and outside links, are shared on Facebook every week. So take the time to do your research, listen and find out which digital media platforms your target audience uses the most. Then build your marketing plan and strategy around the best way to share your story on those platforms.

Step 2: Dialog with your audience.

If your organization wants to successfully utilize digital media, you have to create a dialog. Don’t just use digital media to inform people about what is new, what is next or what discount is now available- that can be one sided and bland. Add content that your target audience will value, whether it’s links to other sites, informative videos or encouraging blogs. Ask thought-provoking questions and solicit opinions about your posts. And always, always respond to any and all comments your fans leave on your organization’s Web sites. The more your fans feel connected to you, the more they’ll tell others about what you’re doing! Never leave any comment, @reply or feedback be unnoticed or unanswered.

Step 3: Start a groundswell.

Your organization has a built-in, ready-to-go fan base and tribe—your digital media fans and followers. People become loyal digital fans when they or their kids have had a positive experience with you. Empower these people to talk about your organization and what makes you unique. Ask them to guest blog for you, post about you on their Facebook wall and Tweet about you. This will add valuable content to your search engine results, as well as exposing your organization to people who will listen to your fans but not you.

Step 4: Enlist and Empower your staff.

Seventy-five percent of your staff already has their own Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Four Square accounts, and many of them are actively blogging. Ask them to spread the word about the events, offerings, philosophy and culture of your organization. But set up guidelines to encourage your staff to be conscientious of what they are posting and how it reflects on your organization. Help them understand what’s acceptable to post and the damage that could come from a careless comment or photo posting.

Step 5: Look ahead.

Build on your current marketing strategy. Move ahead of the conversation by listening for new opportunities to meet your digital media fans’ desires and requests. Supplement conventional forms of media like print and traditional events like home shows, open houses or conventions, with social media. By combining traditional and digital media, you’ll get a better return on your marketing money with deeper ROI and connected relationships.

Now, replace this office space design process with your website development process. These days, there’s not much difference. You’re just replacing tangible brick and mortar with virtual space. But if you consider which of these walls and roofs more people visit, you’ve figured out the true value of your website.

So back up for a moment and ask yourself, “How much am I willing to pay for experts who know how to turn a cookie-cutter office space into my company’s brand?” Chances are good you’re willing to pay more than a few dollars. So, why, when your website is your opportunity to show your unique brand, would you settle for one that has nothing unique?

Interesting paradox, huh? Websites are much less expensive to build than they were just a few short years ago, but if you want to make yours stand out, to represent your brand and do a big part your selling for you, you’re going to have to pay for some real experts. Not just programmers who know html, php and css, but designers and brand strategists who know how to represent your best assets online. And writers who know how to take the hundreds of keywords necessary to help your site show up well in search results, and incorporate them into enticing content that flows seamlessly.

Websites like this are not just necessary for e-commerce businesses, they’re imperative for any business that wants to take advantage of the wonderful benefits the web has to offer your brand. It’s a new way of thinking, isn’t it?

But help is here. Take a look at these five questions and see if you can answer them for your company. (Even if you can’t you’ll look like a genius presenting them)

1. Purpose: What would we be if we were a movement instead of a business?

2. Principles: What will we always do and what will we never do? (“A principle isn’t a principle until it costs you money.” Bill Bernbach)

3. Positioning: What about us is authentic, exclusive, and mesmerizing?

4. Processes: What does the way we operate say about us?

5. Place: What does the way we look say about us (offline and online)?

Granted, it’s a little weird.  But it works. We adapted it a few years back from a great guy, Tim Williams, and his book Take a Stand For Your Brand.

What do you think?