Progressive political operatives can rightly claim that they know a lot about how to use “word of mouth” in campaigns. It has been a staple weapon in the arsenal to use against conservatives who often are much better funded and can buy more advertising. However, in recent years word of mouth marketing techniques have gone through an upgrade in the private sector due largely to innovative uses of the internet. Word of mouth is now a hot topic in corporate marketing circles and many leading companies are using new approaches to reach consumers.

Those in politics can benefit from these new word of mouth developments too. So the New Politics Institute asked Brad Fay, the chief operating officer of a research and consulting firm that specializes on word of mouth marketing, to report on some of the recent developments in the field. Brad also happens to be running as a progressive candidate in his local township in New Jersey and has been thinking about how some best practices in the private sector might migrate into politics.

One big takeaway from the report is that the internet should be seen as a tool to enable an ever-widening circle of people (often ordinary, non-partisan types) to carry out word of mouth off-line, which is where the vast majority of this kind of persuasion still takes place. But campaigns can do much more to set up the online tools that allow that off-line work to efficiently and effectively happen.

Progressives should take heart in the resurgence of word of mouth, their familiar realm. The reason corporations are embracing word of mouth marketing is because traditional mass marketing techniques, like broadcast television advertising, is seen as less and less effective in a world burgeoning with media and ads. Many people increasingly are recoiling from this overwhelming media glut and turning to their family and friends for advice on what to buy – and how to vote.