While the importance of social influence in marketing is clear, the fleeting and random nature of word of mouth has historically made it difficult for these communications to scale beyond an individuals personal network of relationships.  Consequently, over the last half century, the one-to-many, mass marketing model has largely replaced word of mouth as the most prevalent source of information and advice in shaping purchasing decisions. However, with tens of millions of consumers now participating in online social networks, the potential now exists for word of mouth to scale in ways not previously possible.  According to a Forrester Research report by Josh Bernoff, “three in four US online adults now use social tools to connect with each other.” And because we trust our friends and neighbors more than we do advertising, the ability of social networks to amplify word of mouth far beyond its historically limited audience could have a profound impact on traditional media.

We are all part of many social groups (e.g. friends, co-workers, neighbors, schools, religious, family etc) and within these groups there are both influencers and connectors who facilitate the exchange of information. Today, 93% of these exchanges occur in face-to-face conversations or over the phone and are mostly informal and random which makes it difficult to share them beyond their initial audience. However social marketing networks, like the ones being developed by Buzfactor, will make it far easier for consumers to share recommendations well beyond their personal network of relationships.

The search interface today is simple, powerful and effective, however, the “one size fits all” approach is beginning to show its limitations. For example, modifiers such as “best” are often included in search queries, however, depending on the situation, “best” has many different meanings.  Using restaurants as just one example, the search for the “best” choice is simultaneously influenced by many factors including time of day (lunch or dinner), occasion (business or social), group dynamics, or even weather (outdoor seating hardly works in Boston in January).  And while search engines have made great progress toward localizing information, it’s important to remember localization is not personalization. This is where our individual social networks will come into play.  Moving forward, I believe our personal network of relationships will help create new, more meaningful ways to organize and filter content and provide the context that search lacks today.