The Acceleration of Word of Mouth

In the past, “word of mouth” meant literally that. Now friends telling friends is as likely, or perhaps a little more likely, to involve the tap of keys and click of mouse. Because of this word spreads faster and wider than ever before, and this means you need to be more aware than ever before of the phenomenon and how it affects you.

When something spreads effectively through word of mouth it is considered to have gone “viral”. There are many factors that influence a message to go viral but for the main ones are:

• Surprising/Unique/Newsworthy/Remarkable
• Easy to understand
• Easy to spread
• Easy to remember
• Emotionally charged
• Loaded with benefits

Each case will not necessarily have all of these but the more attributes that match, the more likely it will go viral. In order to make your own messages spread you need to craft it in such a way that you hit most of these points.

Consider the last viral you were sent, perhaps an email joke, a text message that had gone around all your friends, or a YouTube video. If you think about it there will likely be most of these factors, with the benefit being usually fun and laughter.

Of course it is not just good stuff that spreads via word of mouth.We all know bad news travels at light speed.

See Also

What is a Lower Third? Definition and Design Strategies

If you want to attempt to stop bad news spreading then you need to nip it early and effectively. Remove the emotion and benefit from spreading the message by calmly resolving the issue or by going above and beyond in your customer service so if the message is spread it is noteworthy because of positive reasons and not negative. If that fails then you need to make your side of the story clear and memorable. The more complicated a message is, the fewer people it will impact.

Have you got any tips to share?