Archive for the 'Company/Organization Advocacy' Category

Influential Insight

19th December 2007 by Elizabeth Rizzo

Came upon 2 insightful advocacy articles from academia recently about the power of influence. The first, “How Valuable is Word of Mouth” comes from Harvard Business Review” written by V. Kumar, J. Andrew Petersen, and Robert P. Leone. The authors advise businesspeople to gauge customer value based on those who bring in the most referrals: “In these interconnected days, how your customers feel about you and what they are prepared to tell others about you can influence your revenues just as much.” The article provides a model for measuring a customer’s total value, not just his lifetime value which so many companies have embraced as being the ultimate measure in the world of CRM.

The second, “Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation,” is from the Journal of Consumer Research, authored by Duncan Watts (Columbia University) and Peter Sheridan Dodds (University of Vermont). This paper expands upon the segment of consumers known as Influentials – the minority of individuals who influence an exceptional number of their peers. The authors find that “large cascades of influence are driven not by individuals, but by a critical mass of easily influenced individuals.” This provides added dimension to what we have always been told about WOM.

Both papers are worth a read and are a great advocacy resource.

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Advocacy Boom

5th December 2007 by Elizabeth Rizzo

There’s a great paper in the latest McKinsey Quarterly that reports on the opportunity organizations should leverage by addressing the challenges of aging baby boomers. What caught my eye was McKinsey’s premise that boomers will need to turn to new sources of community as they face approaching health and loneliness issues. Couple this idea with the finding that many over age 50 view retirement as a time to contribute to society and we have a perfect formula for Boomer Advocacy. 

Our own research on boomer communications (B2F Connections) found that boomers have vast personal networks, are trusted advisors and are socially and environmentally conscientious. Our New Wave of Advocacy study went even deeper and found that 42% of boomers are already Advocates. Their influence even goes beyond word-of-mouth — nearly half of boomers wear something like a pin, bracelet or T-shirt to show their support for an issue or cause and take just hours to act upon their decision to support an issue or cause. This is a powerful segment and not only because of its size and wealth. 

Watch out for the Advocacy boom. It’s approaching quickly.

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