Word-of-mouth marketing has taken on a new form with social media Web sites, but the concept behind it remains unchanged. A successful word-of-mouth campaign establishes relationships with influencers in a target community and gets them to praise your Web site to their networks. (more…)

You know that old saying, "You can't please all the people all the time?" Even the companies with the best products and customer service have critics. But the Internet and social media amplify critics' voices, giving them a large and receptive audience. It could hurt your business if you don't have a good response. (more…)

It's no surprise that more and more Web sites are adding user-generated content when it's the foundation for success of half of the fastest-growing online brands, according to a July 2006 study by Nielsen/NetRatings. (more…)

Discussion boards are a great way to get people to visit and return to your Web site. In fact, more than one-quarter of online consumers rate or review products or contribute to a discussion board, according to a January 2007 Forrester Research report. (more…)

When shopping online, customer reviews or comments help consumers make the right choices. Learning that a shoe size runs small, for example, is important when the customer can't try on the shoe. (more…)

If you have a technologically talented team member, you can create a shared workspace in-house for free (not counting labor costs) using open source wikis. A wiki is software that creates Web sites that can be written and edited by a community. Your team can post ideas and updates and have discussions online using wikis. (more…)