Highly Recommended: Harnessing the Power of Word of Mouth and Social Media to Build Your Brand and Your Business

Highly Recommended: Harnessing the Power of Word of Mouth and Social Media to Build Your Brand and Your Business

by Paul M. Rand
Released October 2013
Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill
ISBN: 9780071816229

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Book description

Reach more customers and grow your business with today’s most powerful marketing tool: Word-of-Mouth

Highly Recommended shows the impact of customer recommendations on businesses--transforming how people buy, how you reach customers, how you improve products, and ultimately how you can grow your company by leveraging the power of recommendations. It explains why word-of-mouth recommendations are marketing’s “holy grail,” how to get people talking, who gives recommendations, where recommendations occur, what it takes to build a recommendable brand, and how to instill WOM into every aspect of a business and at the center of any marketing mix.

Paul M. Rand is the founder, President and CEO of Zócalo Group, one of the world’s leading word of mouth and social media marketing agencies and one of the fastest growing companies inside Omnicom Group, the 2nd largest global advertising and marketing holding company. He also serves at the Chief Digital Officer for Ketchum, a leading global communications firm.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Harnessing the Power of WORD OF MOUTH and SOCIAL MEDIA to Build Your Brand and Your Business
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Foreword
  6. Preface
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Introduction
  9. PART 1 Word of Mouth Recommendations: Marketing’s Holy Grail
    1. CHAPTER 1 Stew Leonard’s and the 30-Minute Recommendation
    2. CHAPTER 2 Why Angie and Her List of Recommendations Are Worth $1.4 Billion
    3. CHAPTER 3 Fixing What Advertising Has Broken
    4. CHAPTER 4 A Whole New Model for a Whole New World
    5. CHAPTER 5 The Power of Positive Recommendations
    6. CHAPTER 6 Why, Where, and How We Recommend
    7. CHAPTER 7 Some Recommendations Are More Valuable Than Others: The Oprah Effect and the Influencer Ecosystem
  10. PART 2 The Road Map to Recommendations
    1. CHAPTER 8 Know: Understanding Where and How Your Brand—and Your Competitors—Are Talked About and Recommended
    2. CHAPTER 9 Plan: Articulating Your Shareable Story, Boosting Your Search Ranking, and Formalizing Your Paid, Earned, and Owned Recommendable Brand Strategy
    3. CHAPTER 10 Identify: Discovering Those People Whose Recommendations Influence Your Brand’s Purchase Decisions
    4. CHAPTER 11 Activate: Creating Compelling Content and Experiences That Engage—The 90/10 Rule
    5. CHAPTER 12 Protect: Identifying and Neutralizing Determined Detractors: Hear Me’s, Reputation Terrorists, and Competitive Destroyers
  11. PART 3 Beyond Marketing: Operationalizing Recommendations
    1. CHAPTER 13 Customer Service That Gets You Recommended
    2. CHAPTER 14 Attracting and Keeping the Best: Becoming the Most Recommended Place to Work
    3. CHAPTER 15 Creating Products and Offerings Your Customers Tell You They Will Buy: Product Innovation and R&D
    4. CHAPTER 16 Tying It All Together: Becoming a Highly Recommended Business
  12. Endnotes
  13. Index

Product information

  • Title: Highly Recommended: Harnessing the Power of Word of Mouth and Social Media to Build Your Brand and Your Business
  • Author(s): Paul M. Rand
  • Release date: October 2013
  • Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill
  • ISBN: 9780071816229