WOMM - Any business action that earns a customer recommendation.

Examples of business actions that can spark customer recommendations include:

• Delivering better products and services
• Providing a great customer experience
• Following through on excellent customer service
• Using advertising to create awareness and appreciation
• Rewarding customer loyalty
• Mobilizing brand advocates
• Engaging with customers through social media
• Plus, so much more…

WOMMA believes the most effective word of mouth marketing follows five vital principles, outlined here in our brand spanking new video:

Join us in making word of mouth marketing credible, respectful, social, measurable, and repeatable. If your company isn’t already a member, consider joining. Contact Jason Dent, our Member Development Director, at JasonDent@WOMMA.org or 312-853-4400.

Yesterday, Simon Mainwaring presented a Keynote at WOMMA Summit 2011 that examined how consumer trust has shifted in the US market. Citing Edelman’s 2010 GoodPurpose Study, he showed that 86% of global consumers believe a businesses’ needs should be weighted equal to society’s needs. That may be a hard sell in a board room, but the numbers don’t lie.

Brands can capture consumer trust by joining or forming causes that complement their brand and resonate with consumers. Nike, for example, is a global sports brand. Instead of simply buying a sponsorship for the Tour de France, they partnered with Livestrong and did something truly amazing. They crowdsourced short messages about why people were fighting cancer. These were literally painted onto the course roads and broadcast around the world during the race. Each submission was also created into an individualized graphic for the submitter, enabling a huge amount of sharing.

Nike’s effort was creative, effective, and ultimately inexpensive. Millions of impressions latter, the campaign both promoted cancer research and benefited Nike.

Brands that care can win. Cause marketing isn’t just goodwill. Done correctly, it makes business sense.

Check out the slides from Simon’s presentation on his Slideshare page.

Sally Hogshead opened WOMMA Summit 2011 with her research on the different drivers of fascination. She found that a mere 39% of the general public felt like they were more fascinating than other people. But this conflicted with two other of her findings:

1. People are hardwired to be fascinating.

2. People are hardwired to be fascinated.

These two traits are critical to how we communicate. Her research examined how 65,000 people fascinate and are fascinated. It unveiled seven key fascination types:

1. Power – Stories about rulers and tabloids about celebrities fascinate because of power.

2. Passion – Emotion attracts action and conversation.

3. Mystique – It arouses curiosity.

4. Prestige – This increases respect and admiration.

5. Alarm – A sense of urgency draws attention.

6. Rebellion – This is led by change and the creativity needed to do so.

7. Trust – The consistency of trust can build long lasting and sustainable fascination.

So if we’re naturally fascinating and ready to be fascinated, why do only 39% of people feel they’re more fascinating than the rest? These 61% don’t necessarily need to learn how to be fascinating. They need to unlearn how to be boring. Whatever led them to temper themselves, may it be schoolyard conformity or adolescent awkwardness, is simply holding back their naturally fascinating selves.

Want to know how you’re fascinating? Take five minutes to find out your two dominant fascination traits at Sally’s website.

Nichole Goodyear was named one of the most influential women in technology in 2011 by Fast Company. Over her career, she has founded and headed several tech start-ups that focused on making brands more social and talkable.

She recently did a Marketing Smarts Podcast with Matt Grant, Managing Editor for MarketingProfs. She outlined three phases brands go through on the road to social talkablility:

1. Listening

2. Building

3. Engaging, Inspiring, and Gaining Recommendations

The third step is the big hurdle. Garnering recommendations now requires an approach focused on making customers care enough to share.

Listen to the full 40 minute podcast on MarketingProfs

Nichole Goodyear works for Extole, a WOMMA governing member.

At WOMMA, we eat, breath and live for creating talkable brands through word of mouth marketing. Join us at Summit 2011 where 5 Keynotes, 50+ speakers and 500+ marketers will teach, learn and network their way to talkablility.

Keynotes include:

· Simon Mainwaring, Author and founder of WeFirst

· George Attallah, Asst. Executive Director of External Affairs, NFL Players Association

· Dominique Foxworth, President Elect, NFL Players Association and Cornerback, Baltimore Ravens

Learn More

Agenda

Register Now

Apple is a brand that consistently generates word of mouth. Steve Jobs drove much of the word of mouth, but without him, the conversation will certainly continue.

Word of mouth marketing is often plagued by a problem the technology industry has – too many choices. The last few days have fleshed out some amazing quotes from the innovating leader, but the following applies to word of mouth marketing as much as it does to technology or any other endeavor.

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”

Key Takeaway: Steve Jobs curated Apple into what it is today. Do the same with your brand.

Read more about Steve Jobs at Radian6 and Zuberance

Image Credit: Blackdog Design Limited

It was a bit fun to see Hollywood tackle word of mouth marketing done to the extreme in the 2009 movie The Joneses. The story was about a family that moved into a well-to-do neighborhood and became very social with the locals. However, when they entertained, they also recommended products in an effort to promote certain brands in the neighborhood. Right now it has a 6.5 out of 10 rating on IMDB. Not bad.

Well, in a reality show driven world, someone was bound to try it in real life…more or less. A real family’s house was loaded up with hidden video cameras and microphones. The family hosted friends for parties and casual get-togethers, all the while telling their guests about products that they liked. The results were very interesting.

In a rare mix between focus group and social experiment, this project actually drew some interesting data. Once the project was finished, the friends rated the influence of the recommendations at 10 out of 10. Pretty impressive.

Read more about the project, which was detailed in the book Brandwashed, at Fast Company

1. We are storytellers. Thought leadership is already in our DNA.

2. We begin—not end—every project with an analysis of how to approach influencers.

3. We are already trained to empathize and converse with different audiences (at the same time).

These are some pretty good points, no doubt. But far be it from me to let this be a one sided argument.

Calling All Marketers, HR Folks, Sales and Advertisers!

Comment below with your case for the social media pie.

Read the Elizabeth’s 10 other points at Ragan

We share because: (via Bazaarvoice)

1. We share to bring valuable and entertaining content to others

2. We share to define ourselves to others, and to receive social validation

3. We share to strengthen and nourish our relationships with one another

4. We share for self-fulfillment—“We enjoy getting credit for it”

5. We share to advocate for causes we believe in, and less commonly, brands we want to support

Sounds familiar, right? When creating content, we need to remember that people share for simple reasons. So making something “shareable” is more about creating relevant material as opposed to simply attaching the latest social buttons (though those help).

Read about the six types of sharers at Bazaarvoice

“Social Media Day is a global celebration of the technological advancements that enable everyone to connect with real-time information, communicate from miles apart and have their voices heard.” - Mashable

Social Media Day, June 30^th, has come and gone. Cities worldwide held gathering, panels, and Meetups.

WOMMA sponsored Social Media Day in Chicago and Seattle. Both events had a great crowd. We gave away a WOM-COMM Social Customer Care registration at each event.

Steve Ziemba, WOMMA’s Marketing Director, was at Chicago’s Social Media Day Meetup and had this to say:

Social Media Day Chicago had a great turnout. As part of the panel discussion, I thought the audience had great questions about social media ROI, the use of social in the B2B space, social CRM, and what to consider when developing a social media policy. The questions demonstrated a maturity in the strategic thought process of how people and companies are using these social tools.

Read more about Social Media Day in Chicago at Chicago Social Marketing

Check out photos from the event too!

And read about Banyan Branch’s Seattle Social Media Day experience