A company’s social media policy serves, in its simplest form, as a guide to how a business, its employees, and anyone else speaking on behalf of the business should share opinions, beliefs, and recommendations with customers online.

Fast Company magazine recently examined social media policies from a range of businesses and found there “there is little consistency in the policies” and “the complexity of a corporate social media policy depends on the robustness of the corporate culture.”

Surprisingly, Walmart’s social media policy, especially with Twitter, is decidedly hands-off. Best Buy’s policy includes a long list of “dont’s.” CNN’s policy is rather strict. Read the full Fast Company article for great insights into the do’s and don’ts of drafting a social media policy.

WOMMA members have told us designing an effective social media policy isn’t easy. It requires a balance between using proper legal guidance with relevant marketing practices.

Recently, we held a webinar sharing insights into designing a social media policy. On the webinar were two lawyers and one marketer. Anthony Diresta (WOMMA’s General Counsel, Partner with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP) and Luis Xavier Hernandez-Ochoa (Category Regional Counsel at Unilever) represented the lawyer side and I represented the marketer’s point of view.

This webinar coincided with the release of WOMMA’s Guide to Designing a Social Media Policy (.pdf file). Like the webinar, this guide offers a legal view and a marketer’s view. The legal view in the WOMMA guide comes in the form of a lawyer-friendly template policy. The marketer’s view is a three-pager detailing important decisions a company must make in developing their social media policy.

For an overview of both the legal side and the marketing side to designing an effective social media policy, watch this archived webinar…

Very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday about the “Selling Power of Friendship.” The article outlines how Facebook intends to boost revenue by selling targeted and personalized ads based upon the voluminous data it has collected on the likes and Facebook activity of its users. It’s called “Social Context Advertising.”

For example, when Facebook users “like” an ad, Facebook could feature the names of your friends who have indicated they “like” the ad/brand somewhere in the design of the ad.

Shiv Singh, notable social media researcher/practitioner, says, “The social ads are interesting, because you feel that you are connecting to a brand through an endorsement from someone.”

It’s clear from Sheryl Sandberg’s quote that Facebook understands the power word-of-mouth has in improving the effectiveness of marketing.

However, Augie Ray from Forrester brings up a good point about the value of a Facebook fan. Augie says “there is no intrinsic value to a Facebook fan” that is “… until the brand does something to create value with Facebook fans.”

Marketers must not confuse “liking” a brand with “championing” and “advocating” a brand. It’s simple and quick for a person to click a button indicating they “like” a brand. But is it truly meaningful?

Word of mouth takes on a whole different meaning when a person goes out of their way to share their appreciation for a brand by talking about it over happy hour drinks with co-workers, during a dinner get-together with neighbors, and on the phone with a good friend. That’s the true selling power of friendship!

Last month I wrote an article for the Social Media Examiner sharing three steps marketers must take to keep word of mouth credible in social media marketing. The article addresses long-standing WOMMA Ethics Code themes of disclosing relationships, honesty of opinion, and monitoring compliance.

To read the article, click on the image below…

A theme that’s popping up more and more with word of mouth marketers is the strategy of using customer service as the new marketing. Zappos has built its business around a customer service culture. Comcast has focused on customer service to help repair its brand image. And, Best Buy uses customer service as a differentiator.

At WOMMA’s recent School of WOM conference nearly every presentation from the keynotes to the breakout sessions touched up customer service as a way to make a brand more talkable.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Dana Mattioli writes about how “some executives see a chance to woo frustrated customers from rivals through word of mouth and by creating pleasant experiences.”

Mattioli details how Comcast is improving its customer service, resulting in satisfied customers, higher sales, and no doubt … more positive word of mouth.

“Cable provider Comcast is bolstering customer service operations in an effort to retain customers and sell higher-priced services. The company has been trying to improve customer service for the past couple of years, but it’s still a sore spot: earlier this year The Consumerist, a consumer issues website, granted Comcast its “Worst Company in America” award.

In January, Comcast started putting its 24,000 call-center agents through additional training and has told call-center supervisors to spend 70% of their time coaching their agents, more than double the amount of time they spent before. So far, Comcast says it’s seen a decrease in repeat customer calls—queries about the same problem—and in customer requests to speak to a supervisor.

‘Our primary focus has been on ensuring that we’re delivering superior customer service and that clears the way for us to be able to up-sell,’ says Tina Waters, senior vice president of customer operations at Comcast.”

[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal article | June 7, 2010]

Returning from WOMMA’s “School of WOM” Conference has my head spinning with new insights and new connections. My notepad is littered with takeaways. And Twitter is littered with takeaways too.

Nearly 300 attendees shared 2,500 tweets with the #WOMMA hashtag during the three-day conference. As I did following WOMMA’s 2009 Fall Conference, I’ve whittled down the 2,500 tweets from the School of WOM Conference to 200 of the most “talkable tweets” from attendees.

Enjoy this SlideShare presentation…

At WOMMA, we use the term TALKABLE BRAND as a way to define a brand that’s worth talking about offline and online. During next week’s SCHOOL OF WOM Conference, we are going to be talking a lot about talkable brands.

We recently asked our Board of Directors of smart marketers to explain what makes a brand talkable. Their answers are worth reading and worthy of being talkable.

SESSION:
Marketing Lessons from the Art Institute of Chicago’s Red Cube Project

DESCRIPTION:
In December 2009, the Art Institute of Chicago launched a citywide art project to support 500 Ways of Looking at Modern – a year-long exploration and celebration of all things modern. The effort involved scattering 500 red cubes around Chicago. Each cube had its own art project for the finder of the cube to complete. Thousands of people, from Chicago and beyond, participated. The user-generated contributions turned the Red Cube Project into its very own example of modern word of mouth marketing success.

TEACHERS:
Kevin Lynch (Proximity Chicago)
Gary Stoppelman (Art Institute of Chicago)
Carrie Heinonen (Art Institute of Chicago)

THREE QUESTIONS:
What marketing challenge does your School of WOM session address?
KEVIN LYNCH (KL): “For marketers with all the money in the world, this session will be entirely useless. For those who have limited budgets, however, the session shows how marketing components that cost the least can actually generate the most discussion.

Describe the moment you knew this marketing program was making a difference.
(KL): “At its core, the Art Institute’s Red Cube Project thrust homework projects onto unsuspecting Chicagoans. Within 2 days, 35% had already played along. That type of immediate response sent a clear message the campaign would be a success.”

Share one actionable takeaway attendees will learn from your session.
(KL): “All media should be treated as social. Thus, the focus should be on having a great idea and then figuring out how to ensure participation. Too often, brands start with the objective of ‘creating a viral social media program’ rather than focusing on creating a holistic idea borne out of human insights. If you do the latter effectively, you can better your chances of creating social media success.”

>> Learn more about the School of WOM and review the full agenda.

SESSION:
FedEx | Mastering the Art of Enterprise-wide Social Media Integration

DESCRIPTION:
It’s much easier said than done for a big company to experience the benefits of social media to build brand loyalty, resolve issues, engage customers, gather feedback, and grow revenue. FedEx will discuss their blueprint for successfully integrating social media across their organization as a value-adding channel that compliments and extends their existing communications, sales, customer service, and product management efforts.

TEACHERS:
Blake Cahill (Visible Technologies)
Diane Terrell (FedEx)

THREE QUESTIONS:
What marketing challenge does your School of WOM session address?
BLAKE CAHILL (BC): “Leveraging social channels for social intelligence or business results and the transformation it can be for marketing/consumer insight/reputation management or customer service.”

Describe the moment you knew this marketing program was making a difference.
(BC): “I knew we were tracking well when during the inaugural program we began receiving emails of thanks and questions from attendees.”

Share one actionable takeaway attendees will learn from your session.
(BC): “The easy part of social is ‘starting to pay attention’ … while the really hard work comes from investing in people and processes within your business to deal with, leverage, and or exploit the full potential of this exciting and transformational channel.”

>> Learn more about the School of WOM and review the full agenda.

SESSION:
Generating Brand Advocacy for Boston Market

DESCRIPTION:
Having lost “top of mind” status with many consumers and serving a public whose tastes and dietary sensibilities have shifted, Boston Market faced the challenge of recapturing mindshare and breaking free from the stereotype that it offered only wintery comfort food. The brand saw an opportunity to harness social dialog and consumer advocacy for sharing news about Boston Market’s broad menu and multi-seasonal fare. In this session you will learn how Boston Market designed, executed, and optimized this word-of-mouth platform to change perceptions and drive a measureable increase in sales.

TEACHERS:
Gretchen Paules (Boston Market)
Dave Balter (BzzAgent)

THREE QUESTIONS:
What marketing challenge does your School of WOM session address?
DAVE BALTER (DB): “Boston Market needed to grow its business by expanding consumer perceptions about the breadth of its menu items and its year-round relevance. They achieved this through a year-long initiative focused on immersive brand experiences that created educated advocates who were willing to spread the word to other consumers.”

Describe the moment you knew this marketing program was making a difference.
(DB): “After an initial series of pulses that showed strong directional evidence of impact, Boston Market implemented a more rigorous test and control market to confirm the directional findings. The analysis proved that these advocates were generating actual marketplace lift in sales through their ongoing social dialog.”

Share one actionable takeaway attendees will learn from your session.
(DB): “Validating and optimizing your investment in word of mouth / social media is not a one-off effort. It requires an always on and test and learn mindset to deliver improved ROI over time.”

>> Learn more about the School of WOM and review the full agenda.

SESSION:
Using Inbound Marketing to Generate Qualified Leads

DESCRIPTION:
The smartest businesses today are using savvy inbound marketing techniques to not only be found online but also to convert new website visitors in customers. Cilk Arts is one of these smart businesses. Learn how Cilk Arts optimized their web presence and social media participation to be found by more prospects and convert higher percentages of these prospects into paying customers.

TEACHERS:
Mike Volpe (Hubspot)
Ilya Mirman (Cilk Arts)

THREE QUESTIONS:
What marketing challenge does your School of WOM session address?
MIKE VOLPE (MV): “How to get more leads and build your brand at a low cost.”

Describe the moment you knew this marketing program was making a difference.
(MV): “When Cilk Arts had a single blog article attract over 10,000 visitors, we knew that it was making a difference.”

Share one actionable takeaway attendees will learn from your session.
(MV): “How to use inbound marketing to attract more leads and customers to your business at a 60% lower cost than traditional outbound marketing.”

>> Learn more about the School of WOM and review the full agenda.