The Grandfather of WOM Speaks

George Silverman, the Grandfather of WOM, has been tracking WOM since the early 70s and wrote the first book on it in 1991 (Secrets of Word-of-Mouth). Throughout the conference George delivered some memorable quotes and interesting observations. Such as …

WOM works especially well today because it reduces information. In essence, our social networks edit out all the unnecessary information about unremarkable products and only lets the hyper-relevant information spread.

“Sustainable WOM only works for good companies with good products.”

“If WOM is 5,000x more powerful than advertising then it will attract every sleaze ball out there.”

Later in the conference, George elaborated on how brands need to pay attention on how to get consumer’s to pay attention by saying …

”Brands better earn it [customer’s attention]. We have the same time currency. We all allocate it differently. Attention is not cheap. It is expensive. Brands attempt and strive to have us pay attention. Brands need to earn it."