This post is a follow-up to a word of mouth marketing presentation I gave yesterday to a combined meeting of IABC and PRSA.  By the way, if you were in attendance, your feedback -- positive and negative, of course -- about the session is very much welcome.  Please feel free to leave a public comment at the end of this post or drop me an email.  Your comments will help us enhance the value for the future.  On to Resources...

If you are new to thinking about word of mouth marketing, here's my Top 8 List of personal "getting started" favorite resources. Of course there are so many great blogs and discoveries being made and written about in this field, it's hard to choose just eight.

For a more comprehensive list -- including great blogs than those listed in the Blogroll on this site, go to Andy Sernovitz's resource page.

My Top 8:

Word of Mouth Marketing Association - (WOMMA) is the word of mouth marketing industry association. It's a terrific organization: members are some of the more progressive-minded marketers and business people I've come into contact with in years. Their events are enlightening, practical and good fun. WOMMA walks the talk: they're all about education, make lots of great materials available to non-members and make them easy to pass along. At WOMMA.org, you'll find:

• case studies
• research
• educational resources
• much, much more about ethics, and
• word of mouth measurement

Why not sign up for some of their free newsletters?

Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking - If you are going to own just one book about word of mouth marketing, it's this one. It's an uber-practical guide for understanding and applying the word of mouth philosophy to any size or type business. Written by Andy Sernovitz, former CEO of WOMMA (and once duped by Ali G in a previous life), it's chock full of tips and techniques. Don't miss the Word of Mouth Marketing Manifesto on page 59; I would post it here but don't want to be a spoiler. Haven't we had enough of that with Harry Potter this week?  Buy it.  Copy it.  Paste it to your wall.

The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth - Looking to make a significant, measureable across-the-board cultural shift in how you do business? This book is for you. With lots of anecdotes and industry benchmarks, this book can help you make the distinction between good profits and baaaaaaaad profits -- those derived from any activity that makes your customers feel icky and spur them to go out and justifiably bad mouth you. The book's elegant Net Promoter Score metric can help you begin to isolate touchpoints where your organization may be falling short, and create internal accountability around customer loyalty. Nice!

Duct Tape Marketing - Are you a small business? This is the one marketing book for you. It's exactly what it promises to be: the world's most practical small business marketing guide. Word of mouth -- and specifically how to use social media tools like blogs and RSS (really simple syndication) -- are just a subset of author John Jantsch's overall marketing system. Still, this book gives a timely context to small business marketing, and lays out a simple, streamlined, disciplined process to grow your business. I tell every small business owner I encounter, don't spend a dime on any agencies or consultants -- including us -- until you read this book.

Something By Seth (Godin, that is) - Purple Cow and / or Unleashing the Idea Virus - The former is teeming with real-world, simple stories about differentiating yourself in remarkable ways. The latter will give you the framework and background to counsel clients when they say, "Oh, yeah, and give me something viral!" Quick reads. Fabulous inspiration.

The Influentials: One American in ten tells the other nine how to vote, where to eat, and what to buy - To think we Americans aren't all created equal! Penned by former GfK/NOP execs Jon Berry and Ed Keller, now founders of Keller-Fay Group, the only company that measures offline word of mouth, this book will have you look at your social circle differently, as will...

The Tipping Point - Malcom Gladwell's landmark book that may have just been the tipping point for the birth of "new" marketing. A classic. A must.

Should you want to accelerate learning about word of mouth or adapt/integrate word of mouth strategies to your particular goals, let's talk.