Thoughts in Time

I received an email from a friend that many people have probably received. “Is this true? I really hope not…”It asked. Below was a forwarded email talking about how Osama Bin Laden was identified by Ollie North at his hearings as being evil and that north had suggested the US assasinate Bin Laden. With about 20 seconds of research I was able to ascertain that the email was not even close to true. North did not mention Bin Laden, but rather Abu Nidal, and certainly did not suggest an assasination. Further the email claimed that the questioner was Al Gore - again, not true at all. But here was someone I know is smart forwarding me this message, very willing, in fact kind of wanting to believe that it was true.

This got me thinking more about the power of word of mouth and star wars. This will sound funny, but if WOM is “the force” that is the most powerful persuader of people to believe in a cause, buy a product, or choose one service over another, then there are certainly is a dark and light side to “the force”. Because we are much more willing to accept, and trust information that we receive from a friend, colleague, or contact WOM is a powerful engine for spreading false rumors. Fast Company, in their cover article on blogging really honed in on this fact. When a rumor is circulated and spread from person to person, blog to blog, people are willing to accept it with almost no research. When an authority (newspaper, company the rumor is about, person who it’s about, expert) refutes the rumors, they are almost universally questioned. The information that comes from a friend is accepted as true with little or no fact checking while the information from a source that has everything to lose if they lie is questioned… This leads to an interesting dicotomy. Companies like Higher One use WOM in our advertising, work with an organization like WOMMA to define a code of ethics, and use it and promte it to others. Individuals do not have this code, or any sort of governing mechanism. There is the essence of an idea here - at least for blogs. Perhaps what we need is better self regulation. We need a “personal WOM” code of ethics, and then an enforcement mechanism. Since blogs seem to be a way that the dark side of WOM gains a lot of power, perhaps a plug-in / truth / community rating tool is what’s needed. There is more here, but understanding how powerful WOM and it’s dark side is a good start.

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