Word of Mouth

Over the course of lunch yesterday I started reading a book... and kept reading a book... and finished reading a book. (It ended up being a long, but massively productive lunch... in case the boss is reading.)

The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II is available on Amazon, but also as a completely free ebook. Here's where things get interesting: I found out about this book through a post on Seth Godin's blog. Author Dave Balter apparently gave ebook rights to a few prominent marketing bloggers-- in fact, you can't even get it directly from his post on his company's blog.

The word of mouth generated in this fashion speaks for itself. It isn't just smart, and it's definitely not a gimmick... it's putting your money where your mouth is.

Probably the most important fact about this whole thing is that the book is good. It's full of fantastic ideas, anecdotes and humor* about viral marketing, WOM and how marketing concepts fail. None of this would work without the strong product behind it.

Check out the ebook and let me know what you think. If you're motivated, you can get through it in 2-3 hours. ;)

*The book quotes The Big Lebowski, in case you think I'm hawking some kind of dry textbook.