Article from eMarketer: Word of Mouth Marketing Best Practices

I just read a great article on eMarketer, featuring Aliza Freud, CEO of SheSpeaks.
It discusses the latest research (Feb 2007 / July 2006) on their marketing research and how word of mouth works in the online environment.

It gave statistics for male and female internet users biggest influences when deciding on a product. Interestingly, the top 3 purchasing influences for men and women were:

#1 : Recommendation of a Friend = male 92% / female 95%
This could be verbal or online- though a social networking, online forums and message boards, ect
#2 : Magazine Ads = male - 70% /female - 75%
#3 : TV Ads = male -69% / female - 74%

How they measured effectiveness of word of mouth / organic recommendations, were through looking at such factors as:
1) member self reporting
2) forwarding of e-mails or special offers from clients to member's friends
3) promo redemption
4) link click through

I always love it when they give information on average return rates, and Freud shared within this article, that the average buzz companies average 3-4 recommendations per person, but that their company has generated as much as 6 - 7 recommendations per person.

A major factor that contributes to how often recommendations are forwared are heavily based on the person's percieved value of a promotion within the marketing vehicle (ex. e-mail)