Word of mouth is an amazingly powerful force — but how does it really work?.

Businesses have become obsessed with stimulating word-of- mouth to counteract the declining effectiveness of advertising. But it’s easier said than done.

As the founder of BzzAgent, a community of more than 400,000 people who volunteer to talk to friends and acquaintances about products they genuinely love, Dave Balter is a successful practitioner, not a theorist. And he’s figured out how to measure and harness word-of-mouth without corrupting it.

In Grapevine, Balter shows why honest feedback – about books, restaurants, gadgets, or anything else – is more believable than any paid endorser. And he answers some of the most elusive questions in marketing, such as what makes word-of-mouth very different from “buzz” and “viral marketing.”

“The rapidly growing field of word-of-mouth marketing has been desperately missing one thing: hands-on experience. This book fills that gap.”
—Emanuel Rosen, author of The Anatomy of Buzz

“Hooray for Dave Balter’s Grapevine. Dave knows exactly of what he speaks, and has the numbers to prove it. This is indeed a must read.”
—Tom Peters

“Every once in a while, a book comes along that changes everything. Dave Balter clearly and persuasively makes his case for a whole new way to think about how your ideas spread.”
—Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow

Dave Balter is the founder and CEO of BzzAgent, the groundbreaking word-of-mouth marketing and a media channel that now has a network of 400,000 consumer volunteers.

Imprint: Portfolio Trade
Distributor: Penguin Group USA, Inc
Publication Date: 06-24-2008
Pages: 224
Measurements: 8.50in X 5.62in X 0.59in X 0.43lb