A friend just passed along a letter that the Booz Allen Hamilton consulting firm sent to marketing executives.

The firm reports that it has just completed a "sweeping multiyear research program in conjunction with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA); the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA).  The group produced a report under the partnership dubbed marketing and Media Ecosystem 2010.

The key finding from the Report?  The consumer is in control and traditional advertising and marketing strategies, channels, relationships and metrics are less useful, and in some cases, irrelevant.

What does work, of course is "marketing as conversation."

As my friend pointed out, word of mouth marketing (WOM), influencer marketing and conversational marketing are quickly becoming the new sweet spot.

Here's the rub.  The skills required to engage in "marketing as conversation" are dramatically different than those used in traditional marketing.

I can tell you from first hand experience that figuring out why and how to get people to talk about your brand -- on a sustainable basis -- is a completely different ball game.

We're continuing to see word of mouth advertising developing as a distinct and measurable marketing discipline.  Nothing beats sustainable word of mouth when it comes to influencing purchase behavior.

2008 will certainly be an interesting year for marketers and word of mouth marketing, viral marketing and influencer marketing in particular.

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Wow.  The bash Facebook bandwagon is really getting a lot of hangers-on.

Even Fortune is predicting Facebook's demise based on the Beacon debacle.  It's not gonna happen.  There's too much money at stake for the powers to be at Facebook to not figure it out -- and quickly.

This word of mouth marketing, peer to peer sharing stuff is not that hard.  Transparent and honest communications is key.  Manipulating the system -- from viral advertising to off line in-market events -- won't be tolerated.

The benefit of all of this to the rest of us in the marketing world? We continue to be reminded of how word of mouth can be done right -- and wrong.

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As word of mouth marketing continues to gain momentum, the focus of marketers has largely been on consumer brands and the fact that traditional marketing is losing its effectiveness in attracting or retaining customers. To date, most of the focus has been on consumer WOM. What has not received as much attention, but is no less market-shifting, is the impact word of mouth has in the business-to-business world.

Paul Rand of Zócalo Group spoke at the recent International Technology Services Marketing Association conference, where there was a lot of interest and discussion around the importance that peer recommendations play in driving business purchasing decisions. Since business runs on facts and figures, here are a few that underscore the importance of word of mouth in b2b according to research conducted by Keller Fay:

• Word of mouth is the #1 purchase influencer for business decision-makers (53%), followed by sales (39%), then meetings/events/ conferences (38%), and the Internet (37%).
• Face-to-face interaction is the #1 way for decision-makers to have word of mouth conversations (75%), followed by the phone (19%), E-mail (3%), IM or text message (1%) and online chat rooms and blogs (< 1%).
• First-hand experience of a brand is the #1 basis for brand conversations (86%).

While it is true business marketing is in many ways different than consumer marketing, it can be argued that word of mouth plays an even bigger role in business and influences a disproportionate ratio of purchasing decisions for very obvious reasons--it is a direct reflection on job performance.

Think about it, if I make an expensive mistake, my credibility is compromised. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me. So the next time I am going to make a purchase, I am to listen to what people are saying and be sure there are others like me who are happy.

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Well, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO had one thing right.  There is no more powerful force than influencer marketing and word of mouth advertising.

What Zuckerberg had wrong was that people wanted to make buzz marketing recommendations without their approval.

So, after just three short weeks and a rising chorus of public outcry, Facebook has modified it's social ad initiative.  As reported in Mediaweek and other sources, Facebook gave into the campaign spearheaded by Moveon.org to fix their disclosure discrepancy.  The big issue?  Beacon was not well explained and it was very difficult to opt out.  Now, users must proactively consent to alert their friends about their on-line purchases.

Yes.  It's another social media stumble by a large company that ought to know better.  But it's a long list and getting longer.  Organizations, however, can be reminded of some influencer driven word of mouth marketing basics. Shill marketing, non-transparency and non-disclosure will not be tolerated.  And you'll get caught.

Do it right, though, and you'll be rewarded with the holy grail for you product: a genuine word of mouth recommendation.

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