Suddenly, everyone is running their mouths about word-of-mouth marketing. You can tell things are getting a little out of hand when you discover there is now a Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association called WOMMA. And there are conferences popping up all over the world on this subject. One recent conference had over 400 attendees.

And that's not all. Now we have a new dictionary to learn. Word-of-mouth is now buzz marketing, viral marketing, community marketing, grassroots marketing, evangelist marketing, product seeding, influencer marketing, cause marketing, conversation creation, brand blogging and referral programs. That's the good stuff. What isn't so good is stealth marketing, shilling, infiltration, comment spam, defacement and falsifications.

If you're like me, you're probably a little confused about all this, so let's put some things into perspective.

First of all, world-of-mouth isn't new much less "the next big thing" that WOMMA declares. A third-party endorsement of your product has always been the Holy Grail. It's more believable. In prior days, we used to try and find the "early adapters" for a product. We figured they had big mouths and loved to tell their friends and neighbors about their new widget.

What's different today is people have many more ways to communicate. Instead of just verbal we now have digital communications. Online chatter far surpasses over the fence chatter in every way, with the exception of clearly knowing the person with whom you are chattering. The trouble is that the ease of communicating en masse has raised the noise level to mind boggling levels. That's the good news.

Now for the bad news.

How many people really want to chatter about products? Do you really want to talk about your toothpaste or your toilet paper? Even people with prestige products tend not to chatter about them. All you really want is to be seen driving up in one. Now, if it's a Harley Davidson motorcycle, sure. That's because you're part of a club, and that's all they talk about. But they don't need buzz.

No product in memory got as much buzz and PR as the Segway gyroscopic scooter. The problem is that most of the buzz was negative. "Funny looking or dangerous on sidewalks" is not what you want to hear. Buzz can kill you if you don't have the right product. The very expensive movie King Kong was a bust because of a lot of negative word-of-mouth. "Too long, too loud and overdone." The Pontiac G6 giveaway on Oprah got a lot of buzz but the car died at the box office. People would take one for free, but not if they had to pay for it. You've got to have a product or service people want to talk about in a positive way, and there aren't many of these around.

Now for the really bad news. There's no way to control that word-of-mouth. Do I want to give up control and let consumers take over my campaign? No way. They aren't getting paid based on how many widgets get sold. If I go to all this trouble developing a positioning strategy for my product, I want to see that message delivered. Buzz can get your name mentioned but you can't depend on much else. Not too many mouths will do a stand-up commercial about your product vs. its competitor. Nor will they check with you in advance on what to say.

This all brings me to my word-of-mouth on word-of-mouth marketing. It's not the next big thing. It's just another tool in your arsenal. If you have a way to get your strategy or point of difference talked about by your customers and prospects, that's terrific. It will help, but you're going to have to surround it with a lot of other effort, including, if you'll pardon the expression, advertising. You just can't buy mouths the way you can buy media. And mouths can stop talking about you in a heartbeat once something else comes along to talk about.

What are your opinions on Word of Mouth marketing?

Interesting, and so well written that I knew it couldn't be just for us. You can also read it in Forbes.

Good or bad, you have no control over what is being said, only influence. When it comes to good word-of-mouth, you just hope they get enough of it right. When it comes to bad, you hope you can hear it early enough to remedy the problem.

No one can base a sale around their word-of-mouth advertising, or can hang around the phones waiting for their word-of-mouth to hit.

Good word-of-mouth is very powerful because in many cases it's a referral from someone you know and trust like a friend or family member. You don't have to write ad copy, there are no production fees.

Bad word-of-mouth can be lethal to a business. It can be very detrimental to a business whether it's warranted or not.

Good word-of-mouth can be generated in many ways. I recommend to my clients that managers/owners be accessible to customers, send thank you's, do follow-up calls, provide a personal touch when possible. This generates the "I know Bob and he'll take care of you" WOMA.

Maybe most importantly is to solve customer problems or concerns quickly and amiably for good word-of-mouth and to gain some bad word-of-mouth insurance.

Customers will always find a way to receive satisfaction from you. Either by having you resolve a customer problem or concern of theirs in a fast, fair and amiable way, or finding satisfaction themselves by dragging you through the mud with bad word-of-mouth to people they're in contact with.

BTW, you won't find this post anywhere else.