Tis the season to be talking

Those of us lucky enough to be together with family and friends over the next week or so will no doubt be doing some of that good old human activity known as catching up. Finding out what's been going on in other people's lives, comparing notes, turning off for a short while from the daily treadmill. In other words, talking. You know. That stuff we used to do before texting, emailing and Facebooking took over.

And whether or not we mean to, many of us will be doing a bit of unpaid marketing. I've already done some today myself. My mother was impressed with the boxed gift that I'd received from my brother, delivered from M & S in time for Christmas. "That's a good idea!" The rest of the phone call consisted of me explaining how easy it was to order online, how you can have it giftwrapped ... the only thing I couldn't tell her was the price.

Marketers have long held positive 'word of mouth' to be the ultimate marketing tool. It's fabulously persuasive, it's authentic and it's free. But the negative variety is just as powerful, and word of mouth can't be controlled. In a similar way, the marketing potential of online social media has yet to be proven. Perhaps we need to put more energy into playing the game rather than controlling it.

Having said that, here's what Doug Meacham has to say about Participation Ethos as a Real Business Model ...