I remember a time when word of mouth used to be this highly esoteric thing everybody feared and nobody could really describe.

Not any longer.

According to this new version of the “Did you know” video, social media is the connection between word of mouth and real money.

25% of search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content. 34% of consumers trust peer recommendations, while only 14% trust advertising!

In the future we will no longer search for products and services…. they will find us through social media, similarly to what is already happening to news.

And if you still have doubts about the power of online word of mouth… check out this wisdom from the # 1 internet content creator in the world (China!).

How do you structure silence…?

I came across a quote by Daniel Barenboim, the renowned pianist: “…it is so disruptive when an enthusiastic audience applauds before the final sound has died away, because there is one last moment of expressivity, which is precisely the relationship between the end of the sound and the beginning of the silence that follows. In this respect music is a mirror of life, because both start and end in nothing”.

As a communicator, you feel under constant pressure to fill silence with words and messages.

Silence often terrifies us….We dread silence during presentations because we think it can only mean two things: either we have forgotten what to say or that the audience is not interested and is therefore not asking questions.

We all live under the tyranny of words until something happens…

It was my coaching  training that made me realise the power of silence.

Silence is an essential component of any successful coaching session… Only by building in silence can issues be explored in depth…. Real break-throughs only happen after powerful moments of silence…

So how do we apply this to communications?

The answer might be that we just need to be brave and resist the urge to structure every minute of our presentations, sessions, pitches, etc.

Another quote by Barenboim got me thinking: “I will … attempt the impossible and try to draw some connections between the inexpressible content of music and the inexpressible content of life”.

Communicators do the same. We are brokers of passions. We help people express ideas and we get audiences excited about them.

Is silence the secret ingredient we need to use to turn ideas into reality?

I’ve always believed that passions make people bond beyond cultural and ideological barriers.

The story I tell in our book  about my encounter with a Kazakh immigration officer only a few years after the end of the Cold War is an example.

Last weekend, I found another one.

I was reading an article  in The New York Times about the anniversary of Isaac Stern’s  trip to China.

The famous violinist toured the country in 1979 giving concerts. People travelled miles by train to see him perform. This happened at a crucial time. China was emerging from a long period of isolation from the rest of the world.

Stern  is credited not only with spreading the love for classical music but also with enabling cultural exchanges between the West and a country everybody had learned to fear.

You have to watch the video  about Stern teaching young Ho Hongying to play the violin. It contains one of the best lessons in cross-cultural communications I have ever come across.

Without knowing a word of Mandarin, Stern manages to tap into Hongying’s passion for music and, instantly, her performance improves.

What would be the equivalent of this in corporate communication?