Word of Mouth has always been a part of the human culture.  An example of WOM is the story spread in the 4^th century about a man who gave gifts to the poor.  Saint Nick, Santa Claus and Kris Kringle are all names that have followed this legend throughout thousands of years.

In 1955 Sears in Colorado put out flyers to spread the word about a phone number for children to call the gift giver on Christmas Eve.  A printing mistake brought their efforts to a place where they would evolve to new levels every year.  The wrong number on the flyer led the calls to the Director of Operations at the Continental Air Defense where Colonol Harry Shoup thought the first phone call was a mistake.  As calls continued the people who worked at CONAD were asked to take the phone calls as they thought Santa would.

From then on the efforts grew and NORAD took on the responsibility along with tracking Santa around the earth, integrating the efforts onto the web and now Mr. Claus is tracked through social media efforts on Google Earth, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.  Also, it has been brought to cars where Santa can be tracked on GPS systems.  NORAD has received over a billion hits and continues to share more and more holiday cheer every year.

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As you can see, word of mouth has played an important role in our culture over centuries and now with millions of online viewers, word of mouth is more powerful than ever.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Image source: Desert Island Boy