The word-of-mouth phenomenon in the social media era

This review addresses three contemporary questions on the topic of word of mouth (WOM): (1) Are WOM and online WOM the same phenomenon? (2) What kind of target is more likely to engage in brands recommendations? (3) Can ‘organic’ and ‘fertilised’ WOM have the same value/impact? Furthermore, the present work gives academics a framework for analysing the popular phenomenon WOM, and provides marketers with some best practice suggestions.

The word-of-mouth phenomenon in the social media era

Ana Margarida Barreto

New University of Lisbon

Introduction

With the emergence of the internet, and especially of the Web 2.0, consumers found new, easy and accessible tools to obtain and compare information about products and services with other people. As a result, consumers are no longer restricted to their personal network in order to get recommendations, as they can also access information from unknown people (for instance, through blogs or forums) via the web. They are also able to gain information through their friends’ friends via social networks, as it is now...

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