Description:Traditional advertising is struggling, while word of mouth - the most trusted source of product information - is expanding into entirely new dimensions on the Web. For more than sixty years, scholars have been researching word of mouth, yet surprisingly few have investigated how to stimulate it. This book seeks to close that gap. Based on involvement and empowerment research, it is the first scientific study that links word of mouth to a participatory marketing approach, thus providing an answer to what may be marketing's most pressing questions: how to harness the power of blogs, Facebook, and the Social Web.