What happened to word of mouth?

I recently read an article on Forbes that talked about the importance of word of mouth marketing as a part of your social media strategy.  As a marketer, a small business owner and someone who generally likes to share positive consumer experiences with my friends and family, this article really got my wheels turning.  So...I took to LinkedIn!  I took advantage of their new feature that allows users to publish posts similar to a blog post and I posed the question, "when is the last time you thought about word of mouth marketing?"  I just published the post minutes ago, so I'll do a follow up once I get some responses but I thought the topic would also make for a good blog post over here at jcalero.com.After reading the article, I really feel like the importance of word of mouth has gotten lost in the shuffle.  Lost among the countless social media platforms, the review websites and all of the digital amenities we have now to drive our purchasing decisions.  Studies show that consumers believe recommendations from friends before they believe any form of advertising.  So as a marketer wouldn't it make sense to focus on this somewhat free form of advertising?I think so!  What do you think?  Tell me how you encourage your customers to provide referrals for you and if word of mouth marketing is an important part of your social media strategy.