A perfect fit to the presentation I gave most recently at the next conference in Berlin:
Studies show that consumers look to their peers for product and service recommendations and reviews. WOM content is, therefore, one of the most powerful, scalable and cost effective forms of promoting your business. And unlike more aggressive outbound marketing campaigns that are often filtered out through email spam filters or caller-ID in the case of cold calls, consumers trust and even seek out feedback and referrals from within the community before they make purchases.
It’s easy to tell how effective your customer community is in generating authentic WOM. You simply have to tap into your community’s customer generated content and pull out company, product or service praise generated by brand advocates. This authentic content can then be used as peer-to-peer marketing content throughout your entire website — from your home page, where you can publish general company praise, to your product listing pages, for individual product reviews and recommendations.
via 5 Signs Your Customer Community Is Working and The Metrics to Prove It.