So, About Folk Art and Word of Mouth Marketing Influencers

By Ted Wright July 26, 2018

By Ted Wright

Normally my day consists of Word of Mouth Marketing, or as I explained to my friend, on his podcast “getting people in North America to talk to their friends about things they think are cool.”

Kristian Bush has an interesting podcast theme, invite people he knows to come on and share about something they are passionate about and is not what they do professionally. His podcast is called “Geeking Out” but it could easily be called “The Influencer Personality Hour.” He picks people to talk about things that are interesting, relevant and authentic to people in the audience.

For those of you unfamiliar with the world of folk art, here is a little background and why I find it fascinating.

“Outsider art,” or “folk art,” is art created by people with often with often little or no formal training. It’s often art created purely for the artist to satisfy an internal desire to share.

I first got in touch with folk art when I was a Boy Scout in Northern Georgia. Bet you weren’t expecting that.

There was a man named Howard Finster who often spoke to God. He decided one day he would make art and eventually created what he referred to as Paradise Garden. Howard and God, over several conversations, decided that Howard should create art to spread the word. He drew, wrote and painted exactly what he felt. Over the next two decades he created Paradise Garden, many works bought by collectors and album covers for The Talking Heads and REM.

What I find so amazing about folk art is most of the artists just pick up a brush and go with it. When you see their pieces, it’s so obvious that they need to express themselves. They need, must, have to get this feeling or thought on canvas.

I love this idea of not caring how this thing will be received, but doing it for self because someone just has to.

It’s a lot like the world of Word of Mouth Marketing and Influencers. Real influencers are out sharing because they want to, not because they have to. Folk artists have this same mindset.

It’s so fun to experience seeing somebody love something so much that they’re just going to do it. For somebody to put their heart and soul into something and it doesn’t matter to them if anybody else understands still gets it. May we all live like this every day.

Ted Wright is the founder of Fizz, the world’s leading word of mouth marketing (WOMM) agency. Ted is also an acclaimed WOMM keynote speaker and the author of Fizz: Harness the Power of Word of Mouth Marketing to Drive Brand Growth. 

Pictured above: Fizz t-shirt