Some may call it gossip, but the number one way consumers make decisions on who they'll trust to do business with is from a personal referral or WORD OF MOUTH.

Ben and jackie over at Church of the Customer share the actual Nielsen results.

"...a new Nielsen study that polled 26,000+ people in 47 worldwide markets, confirming similar results from other studies.

Seventy-eight percent of the people Nielsen polled trust the recommendation of a friend. That's 15 points higher than the next ranking, newspaper ads. Coming in second must surely be good news for worried dailies.

The hot horse, of course, is citizen-created content; it's the third most-trusted form of advertising, just two points below newspaper ads. (Nielsen unfortunately calls this "consumer opinions posted online." C'mon Nielsen, dump that disparaging term and just refer to us as people or citizens.)"

Ron McDaniel of Buzzoodle Marketing has made a living out of showing companies how to create a buzz around their company, products and services through the use of word of mouth.

With it ranking so high in the consumer's mind, I wonder, what percentage of dollars, money and focus does your marketing department spend on generating positive word of mouth?

As a small business owner, what active plans do you have in place for getting the word out about your business? What are some of the examples you've used successfully to create word of mouth advertising?

Deborah Chaddock Brown
Writer