Now, back in the bad old days, I would have probably started by looking in the Yellow Pages, which, at the time, was an actual paper book printed with business listings. Flipping to the “Roof Repair” section, I’d immediately eliminate anyone from contention if they had a company name like “AAAAA Roofing” — if they had to try that hard to get to the front of the category listing, how good could they possibly be? (Fortunately for SEO types in the modern era, search engine optimization techniques aren’t nearly as blatant.)

Next, after realizing that there were way too many companies listed, each indistinguishable from the other except for the prettiness of their 4-color ad, I’d ask a friend or neighbor for a recommendation. (Which might have been my first step, depending on how well I knew my neighbors.)

Word of mouth and human recommendations were paramount, but they were also a lot harder to dig up, and really dependent on geography and your personal social network.

If I couldn’t get any local recommendations, I was pretty much stuck with keeping an eye out for people in the neighborhood getting work done, and noting the sign on the lawn or the truck in the yard and asking for their opinion. Otherwise, back to the phone book.

(You could also do things like check with the local Better Business Bureau for complaints. But no one actually did that.)

Contrast that with my experience in 2009: My neighborhood listserve (well, it’s more of an e-mail list with a lot of people CC’ed — not exactly a model of Web 2.0 participatory community tools, but it works for smaller groups) recently had sent out a call for contractor recommendations, so I e-mailed the list maintainer to get the names of some roofers, got estimates from a few, and chose one.

(As to the rest of the process, the estimate was an e-mailed Word doc that I signed and e-mailed back, and the invoicing was online, too. So it was basically a paperless transaction. But that’s a side note.)

The neighborhood recommendation information could easily have been on a Web page or wiki, or  something like Yelp or Angie’s List, but the point is that it’s not about the technology — it’s about collecting and making available the judgments and opinions of people who had to make the same decisions I was making. In high-falutin’ terms, it’s knowledge management and building a local knowledgebase.

In addition to storing and making accessible the data, the online social tools also expanded the neighborhood, by widening the base of people who could participate. This includes people geographically close to me, but whom I didn’t know (or didn’t know I knew).

(It’s kind of like that coastline measurement example people use when they talk about fractals — the closer you look, the more you come up with.)

The rest of it, all the small business blocking and tackling, remains the same: Good word of mouth and a sound reputation rules the roost, and is even more important when everyone can express their opinion, and (more importantly) everyone else can find it.

Anyway, the point of all this is that online social review and recommendation tools simply reinforce natural behaviors, and make them better.

Got an anecdote to share about a social recommendation that led you well or astray? Leave a comment.

Building brand is something that you start doing & then build on it. It can be as simple as the suggestions in the Word of Mouth article. As you have success you can add to it. The nice thing about establishing your brand & marketing your business online is that it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. But it will require you to consistently invest time.

For my example I’m going to use a niche business & customer segment that I worked with for almost two years. Let’s consider a professional photographer that wants to sell her photos online. She has created a site for posting proofs from portrait & event shoots. And she also has created a section where she displays her nature & landscape photography that’s for sale.

So, she’s ready for business right? Her clients can view their proofs, place them in the cart & order them. But how can she get the word out about her service & her nature photography?

Here are a number of ideas that you can use immediately. Some also work for your personal blog. In upcoming articles I will be covering the following:

Brand Monitoring & Responding

Having a blog (forums for more conversation if it makes sense)

Monitoring Site Traffic & Trends

Newsletter

Listing Sites

Online Press Releases

Participation in Social Networking sites

Utilizing an Events service

What would you add to this list?

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When I first started working online I read many books. The one book that I recommend over & over is Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking by Andy Sernovitz

Why do I recommend it?

My favorite thing about it is that Andy uses the highly scientific terms of ’stuff’ and ‘things’. Those two words pretty much summarize everything! At my last position when I was meeting with the group of developers (and fairly nervous) I used those terms & it went just fine. It’s a quick read but filled with amazingly effective ideas!

What is it?

People have been using word of mouth marketing for ages. Think back to the days before technology. If you had a great experience you would tell your friends & neighbors. And they would try the service & tell theirs. Remember back to when restaurants had a bowl of matchbooks with their business name on them. You were encouraged to take 2 – one for you & one to give a friend. My purse is filled with pens from various hotels. Word of mouth on the web is having something that’s worth talking about? What makes your business memorable?

Is Word of Mouth viral?

Viral is the big buzz word these days. Just having great content doesn’t necessarily mean it will be viral. You need to make it easy to share your content.

- make it easy to find

- put the content on sites like YouTube (offers 13 ways to share), Slideshow, Flickr, etc

- add sharing tools to make it easy for your customer to bookmark, email, add it to their blog readers, etc

Rather than trying to make something viral, try to find what IS viral then sponsor it & support it. Encourage your team to join in & help out. It should be fun! ‘Where in the Hell is Matt’ videos are sponsored by a company that thought it would be a good idea (and it was). Blendtec invested in a lab coat, goggles for a minimal cost & created ‘Will it Blend videos’ & posted them on YouTube. (I bought one of the $400 blenders & yes it works great! but we only put ice in it, not iPhones).

Word of mouth is the cheapest way to start

If you’re going to do something, then the cheapest way is to begin with word of mouth. It just takes some time each day to get involved in social networks.

- Monitor conversations about your brand.
- Solve customers problems as you encounter them
- Thank people for talking about your product & talk with them
-Gather feedback on your products

Start with a small effort & it will grow.

If those ideas sound intriguing then you definitely need to get the book! Andy also has a great blog at gaspedal.com