I am listening to “The Mesh” by @instigating AKA Lisa Gansky, this book has been burning a hole in my audible.com list for more than a year, my mission to fully embrace the sharing economy shot it to the top of the list last week.
Lisa references a study that suggests that recommendation by peers is 50 times more likely to influence a buying decision and that word of mouth is more effective than traditional advertising because we are more likely to trust a user close to us than what the company says, the power of this means that we are 20 – 50 times more likely take action.
“Panning for gold or meet my friend the filter.”
To many of you this is not headline news, what is amazing is the overwhelming evidence via “big data” and case studies that this works.
I often wonder how many people still printing flyer’s and pulling crap sales lines actually make a purchase or take an action because THEY are handed a cheap flyer or someone does the Ben Franklin close on them, I bet they are first to ask a mate!
As the social web becomes even more lively it is vital we don’t mess it up, we ought to make proper time to think about what we are doing because “features and benefits” are huge!
Lisa opens with an example of a guy who was making wine in his garage to sell to restaurants which he then turned into a wine making school, the story is charming and more importantly highly profitable and based on sharing knowledge, resources and an unexpected business model.
