If you have ever been perplexed by what is meant by Web 2.0 (and believe me, it’s OK to admit it because there’s still a lot of debate about what it really means), you might want to look at it as a great way of enabling “word of mouth.” Most Web 2.0 toolsets and the activities they trigger have this in common: they emphasize online collaboration, participation, and sharing among users. So every time you think about consumer-generated content, blogs, wikis, online video, and social networks such as MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube, think of them as activities, tools, and sites that promote word of mouth.

So why should you care about this? Because if you have an idea, product, or service that you need to promote, research shows that word of mouth—and increasingly, the tools and technologies that help it happen—exerts a powerful influence on the public. According to BIGresearch, when consumers were “asked which media most influence their purchase decision for various product categories,” their responses overwhelmingly pointed to word of mouth as being more important to them than mass media such as television, newspapers, or magazines.

In a string of studies developed in 2006 entitled “The Emerging Media Series,” Knowledgestorm and Universal McCann found that over 90 percent of respondents were accessing a combination of technology or business information via online videos and that 76 percent of them shared this content with others either weekly or monthly. This means that approximately three-quarters of all respondents are spreading the word by sharing online video information they find relevant with other colleagues.

Additionally, the same study found that blogs—and to a lesser extent RSS—are also rising in importance. This is of note because “these technologies are inherently bi-directional. They represent the core and spirit of the Web 2.0 ethos whereby millions of daily peer-to-peer conversations and dialogues occur throughout the Web…Indeed this report finds that the blogosphere is making inroads into technology circles with 53 percent of the respondents saying that blog content has already influenced a technology purchase decision.”

If you are a government agency, nonprofit, or association, the same principle applies to your outreach and advocacy needs. If you need to generate interest in your ideas or educate and influence decision makers, then the use of Web 2.0 tools that encourage online collaboration, sharing, and participation should be a top priority for you.

A big thanks to Ken Rutkowski for bringing to light the BIGresearch study (I subscribe to his daily email) and to OMMA (the magazine of Online Media, Marketing, and Advertising) for making me aware of the KnowledgeStorm & Universal McCann study.