There is no question that word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing tactics can generate interest, store traffic and sales. Hearing about a product or brand from a real person is simply viewed as being more powerful - and in many cases, more "trustworthy" that hearing about it from the brand or manufacturer.

Today, one of the best places to generate WOM is on the internet. At a time when seemingly "everyone" maintains at least one social network presence - the internet is more influential than ever and provides brands with a platform to spark WOM (the not so easy part: WOM success requires solid concepting, precise timing and proper execution).

According to this study, the internet encourages brand-related conversations (thereby influencing our purchasing decision and brand preferences) and generates WOM more successfully than TV. While only 7% of all brand-WOM conversations occur online, 38% of people have brand-WOM conversations offline that are influenced by the internet (Yahoo estimates this 38% to be about 74 million people). Also of interest, apparently 15% of our conversations involve subjects, products or brands that we discuss (or back up) with information found online.

This discussion brings up two things:

1) If you are still dragging your feet when it comes to diving into local internet marketing - WHY!? Your customers are online and in your absence your competitors are getting all the glory.

2) Obviously not all WOM is GOOD - but if you aren't a part of it and/or ready to address it (good or bad) that's far worse! Get ahead of the game by planning an online campaign with the goal of sparking WOM buzz. With FREE tools like Twitter and Facebook - all you need is a clever concept, an appealing offer, intelligently planned timing and a targeted audience.

So, is your brand generating lucrative WOM action with its local internet marketing strategy? At Balihoo, our media team has a blast researching and developing unique, affordable, non-conventional advertising tactics for our clients' local marketing and media plans - who knows what they could do for your brand.