Word of Mouth

Most of us have heard someone say, or have even said ourselves that the best form of advertising is word of mouth. Well, I recently joined The Society for Word of Mouth. I joined mostly out of curiosity but believe like most things that start this way I’ll end up learning along the way. The society has a straightforward, two-fold purpose:

1. To be a free social network for the true believers of word of mouth (or the merely curious);
2. To be a premium educational resource for making word of mouth fundamental to the DNA of any organization.

Most every company, organization, etc. still considers word of mouth to be a viable form of advertising. It just so happens that today the technological landscape has expanded our word of mouth options exponentially. No longer do you have to depend on the literal exchange of words from one mouth to another. And no longer are you limited to only a few sets of ears while sharing these words from your mouth. Today’s word of mouth movement is propelled by a nearly limitless variety of communication options. The company who fails to at least consider all of these options in their advertising strategy limits their reach and this the effectiveness of their campaign. Check out the Society

Oops, I Crapped My Pants

Have you ever been so shocked by something that you were practically frozen in place and didn’t know what to say. Yesterday after I got home from work Jacque and I were watching the news and catching up on the day when we heard the front door open. That seemed very odd because no one just walks into our house but our kids who live a few miles away and they nearly always call before they drop by. But sure enough when I turned to see who it was there was Jessica. I still didn’t think too much of it, although I wondered why she’d stopped by. Then the, Oops I Crapped My Pants moment: behind Jessica was Aimee, then Ryan and then Claire. All of them standing there with wide grins on their faces, having just flown in from Idaho to surprise Dad.

I was stunned and pretty much totally speechless because I was so shocked. I was full of questions that wouldn’t come out and I couldn’t put all of the pieces together. I was suddenly feeling older than the fifty years they’d come home to celebrate. After a long round of hugs, followed by more stunned silence I figured out my wife Jacque was in on the whole thing. In fact, she’d been planning it since before Christmas. I had no idea any of this was happening. Many other people knee but not me. In fact, most of the people I work with knew and they were able to keep quiet. Not a word, not a even a twitter!

As I went to bed last night I realized how blessed I was to have a wife who would plan such a great surprise — I could not have a better wife than Jacque. I also realized that I had five really amazing kids that I was very proud of and they were all with me to celebrate a milestone in life. Then I remembered Ryan and Claire were down the hallway in Ryan’s old bedroom, sleeping together under my roof for the first time since they got married in December, and Oops, I Crapped My Pants all over again! 

Welcome Home Kids — I love you!