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

CHAPTER 7Some Recommendations Are More Valuable Than Others

The Oprah Effect and the Influencer Ecosystem

After years of sending samples of his book lights to the Oprah Winfrey Show, Lightwedge CEO James Bennett was told by producers to “stop sending” his free product samples to the show. Bennett jokes, “Their exact words were, ‘We have plenty of samples, thank you very much.’”

However, a few weeks after the last rejection, Bennett noticed a distinct spike on the company’s website: from an average of $3,700 in sales per day to $90,000 in sales in a single afternoon.

Bennett later discovered that a sleep expert named Dr. Michael Bruce had recently done a segment on Oprah about products that help people get a good night’s sleep, and he had brought ...