The WOMMA WordBriefly: GolinHarris, Amy Auerbach on WOM's Future
GolinHarris Debates the Future of Communications via Blog NextFiftyYears.com Amy Auerbach Asks, 'Can Viral Marketing Survive?' MediaPost...
Small Businesses: How to Use WOM
In a recent article, The Wall Street Journal made a unique departure from the standard small business how-to -- things like how to buy advertising and how to finance growth -- and printed tips for generating buzz. Simple suggestions, from...
Bloggers: Without WOM, NBBC Will Fail
NBC's new online media affiliate, the National Broadband Company (NBBC), is trying to harness word of mouth -- and is failing, according to bloggers, who have been chiding the company for trying to limit and control customer distribution of content....
New Tool Helps Marketers Track WOM on Cell Phones
Cell phones can create word of mouth -- after all, they can take pictures, play music and even capture video -- so why shouldn't they also be able to track it? Well, now they can thanks to new technology that...
Don Peppers: Experience Key to Customer Evangelism
To be successful, word of mouth marketers must adopt a show-and-tell approach to customer evangelism, says Don Peppers, founding partner of Peppers & Rogers Group. In a recent edition of 1to1 Weekly, he speaks with Sigma Marketing's Martha Bush, who...
Buzz Drives Two-Thirds of U.S. Economy
Traditionalists are missing out on huge potential by not tapping in to the buzz marketing phenomenon, contends McKinsey & Co. strategy consultant Renee Dye in a 2001 Harvard Business Review article titled "The Buzz on Buzz." According to McKinsey &...
Word of Mouth Provokes Brand Switching
After price, college students are most likely to be swayed by friends' recommendations when it comes to making brand switches, according to a recent Burst Media survey of 800 18- to 24-year-olds. Research Findings: * 48.5% named friends' recommendations as...
'Brand Sirens' Comprise 15-20% of Elusive Demographic
Though they are small in number, opinionated and media-savvy "Brand Sirens" have wide-reaching influence over the rest of their 13- to 34-year-old demographic -- a $600 billion potential influence. According to a CNET Networks and Starcom Media Group study, Sirens...
Word of Mouth: Previously Underestimated
Word of mouth marketing "works in more ways, with more results, than is often assumed," states a new study from WOMMA member Keller Fay Group, titled "The More, the Better: Creating Successful Word of Mouth Campaigns." The study, which tapped...
QVC: Employees Can Spread WOM, Too
QVC has announced a winner in its inaugural Qforce contest, which was conceived of early this year when the company decided employees could create word of mouth for its brand just as well as consumers could. More than 725 employees...
Verizon 'Wakes Up' to WOM with Customer Feedback Blog
Verizon Communications has announced plans to launch a blog by year's end to create an "all issues on the table" dialogue with its customers. The blog will be staffed with a 24-hour response team, according to Verizon's senior vice president...
Movies: MySpace's 'Black Carpet' Builds Early Buzz
MySpace is teaming up with filmmakers to build buzz around new movie releases -- before, not after, they hit theaters. Inspired, perhaps, by this summer's "Snakes on a Plane," which attracted a devout following in the blogosphere months prior to...
Netflix Offers $1 Million for Winning Idea
Netflix announced last week a $1 million incentive for customers who suggest ways to improve its movie recommendation system. The prize is part of a contest to help the company increase its competitive edge with more accurate technology for decoding...
Briefly: Viral Marketing, Media Monitoring and Blogs
Mark Schupp on Why Viral Marketing is "Cutting Edge" PR Newswire Includes Blogs in Media Monitoring Service Learn more (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) Learn more (PR Newswire)...
Softening the Blow from Negative Word of Mouth
Strong brand identification can help shield against negative word of mouth. The February 1998 edition of The Iowa Stater reported on marketing professors Russ Laczniak, Thomas DeCarlo, and Sridhar Ramaswami's study of 300 college students who reacted to negative information...
Ads on Social Sites: Marketers Eager, Consumers Wary
Twenty percent of online advertisers are ready to test viral marketing in vehicles such as blogs this year, though the majority of consumers (69%) don't trust the product information found on social media sites, according to a recent Jupiter Research...
48 Million Consumers Have Posted Internet Content
Thirty-five percent of internet users claim to have posted online content, according to Pew Internet & American Life Project's report "Home Broadband Adoption 2006." Other findings: * 8% of all internet users surveyed have created/work on an online journal/blog *...
Word of Mouth Investment Will Bring Greater ROI
Marketers who spend 50% or more of their time engaged with advanced, consumer-oriented marketing processes will see a 30% greater return on marketing investment by 2007 than their peers who fail to emphasize this area, Gartner analysts Claudio Marcus and...
SPREADING THE WORD
Congratulations to member company Edelman, mentioned in the Sept. 24 issue of Advertising Age for its word-of-mouth-worthy website ... Members Dennis Smith of CNET Networks, Max Kalehoff and Pete Blackshaw of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, Joe Crump of Avenue A/Razorfish, and Rohit...
WOMMA WELCOMES NEW STAFF
WOMMA has a new research editor, Shannon Stairhime. Shannon has a background in market research and joins WOMMA from RFL Communications, where she was an associate editor. Welcome, Shannon!...
NEW MEMBERS
Even more companies have joined WOMMA. Welcome to: Icosystem, Influencer50, Hyperactive Interactive, MCC Theater and Russian Doll. We thank everyone for their support!...
DISCLOSURE IN SOCIAL MEDIA: CALL FOR COMMENT
Consumer-generated media is in the spotlight, thanks to recent headlines surrounding LonelyGirl15, and WOMMA has responded with a call for discussion: * Last month, we issued a press release asking for comments on the issue of marketer disclosure in social...
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BUILD YOUR WOM RESUME
Give us just two hours a month and we'll give you the chance to build an entire industry. Create an impressive resume within the growing word of mouth world by joining a WOMMA Group. Whether you get excited about ethics,...
PUT US ON YOUR PRESS LIST
If you're making waves in the world of word of mouth marketing, we want to hear about it. Put us on your press list today! Let us know when you're making news by emailing editor@womma.org....
COME TO WOMMA'S WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING SUMMIT
Be part of the only event that can help you master word of mouth marketing -- WOMMA's Word of Mouth Marketing Summit, Dec. 12-13 in Washington, D.C. The official event for word of mouth marketing, the WOMMA Summit is a...
BLOG OUR CONFERENCE
The Word of Mouth Marketing Summit is coming -- and you need to be there. In fact, so does everyone you know! Help us spread the word by blogging about the conference. Here is a sample paragraph to use on...
Briefly: Patients Discover CGM, Military Spouses Blog
Consumers Discuss Health on New Social Networking Site Military Spouses Share Information, Seek Support Via Blogs...
Bravo Attributes Success to Buzz
Cable TV network Bravo attributes its success not to expensive marketing plans, but rather to simple, organic word of mouth. So says president Lauren Zalaznick. She tells Broadcasting & Cable magazine in a recent article that her network's transformation from...
New TV Guide Website Enables Community, Conversations
TV Guide has relaunched its website with an eye on community-building. The new site features media-rich content, including video and several community areas -- such as expert and audience blogs, discussion groups, and forums -- designed to fuel conversation and...
American Express Effort Builds Local WOM
American Express has announced a new website, PartnersInPreservation.com, to involve citizens from the San Francisco Bay area in the renovation and beautification of local historic sites. In partnership with WOMMA member Electric Artists, the company is asking Bay Area residents...
Brands Say Goodbye to Ads, Hello to WOM
Traditional advertising is a thing of the past; the future is all about customer-driven marketing. That was the message early this month at the 96th annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers. Presenters from brands such as Procter &...
WOMMA STATEMENT ON EDELMAN BLOG DISCLOSURE ISSUE
Many in the blogging, PR, marketing and word of mouth marketing worlds are understandably concerned about ethical and disclosure issues surrounding Edelman's "Walmarting Across America" blog. The agency's lack of disclosure on the blog is a violation of WOMMA's Code...
5 Exciting New Authors Added!
We promised you the biggest experts in the WOM industry, and that's what we're serving up. Here are five authors who have joined our speakers' roster: John Berry, Co-Author, The Influentials Jackie Huba, Co-Author, Citizen Marketers John Moore, Author, Tribal...
Announcing: YouSessions
YouSessions is a way for Summit 2 attendees to make some demands. WOMMA is letting all conference-goers suggest and vote on six additions to the Summit agenda. Remember what we said about listening to the customer? This is WOMMA's way...
From the Archives: All Levels of WOM Impact New Product Acceptance
Despite assumptions of inferiority, the effects of weak ties approximate or exceed the effects of strong ties in all stages of a product's life cycle, according to research findings by Jacob Goldenberg, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller published in the...
Consumers: If They Can't Say Something Nice ...
... they might not say anything at all. Positive reviews outweigh negative reviews 8 to 1 with an average rating of 4.3 out of 5, according to WOMMA member Bazaarvoice's recent benchmark analysis. "Shoppers are eager to spread the word...
Heavy Internet Users Like Corporate Blogs
Internet users who create online content are 32% more likely to have a favorable opi