“Availability” — short for “availability heuristic or availability bias, a pervasive mental shortcut whereby the perceived likelihood of any given event is tied to the ease with which its occurrence can be brought to mind”. “Cascade” — short for “social cascades through which expressed perceptions trigger chains of individual responses that make these perceptions appear increasingly plausible through their rising availability in public discourse”. An availability cascade is what happens when a social cascade rips through a population based on a more or less arbitrary topic — whatever topic happens to be in front of people when the cascade starts.

So Limaye and Johns Hopkins have created a free two-hour course on the online platform Coursera that's open to anyone. It's called COVID Vaccine Ambassador Training: How to Talk to Parents. Their goal is to prepare everyone, from principals to PTA presidents, to counter misinformation with empathy and, ultimately, to move more people to seek out the lifesaving vaccine.

WOM statistics and research findings compiled into one place

Craig Lefebvre applies Mack Collier's brand evangelist framework to social marketing.

Buzz Canuck offers a new acronym - ACTIVES-P

According to this study, the mega-influencers can impact another 152.9 million people, especially those with diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, heart disease, asthma, high cholesterol, chronic pain, and depression.

Pete Blackshaw discusses the difference between word of mouth from our friends/family and from influentials we don't know personally

One third of users forward healthcare and medical information. Includes profile of typical email forwarder.

Marianne Richmond takes on Forbes' article dismissing the importance of word of mouth

This is a fun concept - Felicity Huffman is transported into 3 classic sitcoms: the Brady Bunch, the Munsters and Leave it to Beaver. Also, the very specific positioning of the product and cobranding with the National Sleep Foundation is interesting.

Change Me is an open conversation that brings people together to share ideas through powerful imagery. Find an image that inspires you and use it to express an idea that has the ability to touch or affect the person viewing it.

presentations from the WOMMA Basic Training conference

Principles of product evangelism from Guy Kawasaki that apply just as well to social marketing products

The "Five T's" of WOM