All Things WOM

Perhaps you know someone at your company who needs to get up to speed on word of mouth and social media marketing. Perhaps that someone is you. WOMMA is here to help.

Beginning Jan. 5, WOMMA is offering WOM-COMM, a seven-week online course sharing best practice education on how to more effectively and ethically use online and offline word of mouth marketing. You’ll learn the core strategies and tactics benchmark businesses are using to get customers talking. And, you’ll gain the knowledge needed to best measure the success of your next WOM marketing program.

The faculty for WOM-COMM is top-notch with practitioners (not pundits). At the recent CREATING TALKABLE BRANDS Conference, the WOM-COMM faculty gave us a sneak preview of what to expect.

Interested?

Click to learn more about WOM-COMM.

Expect lots of tid-bits to be shared from WOMM-U 2009. But first, here is list of immediate recap information.

1. Interviews with presenters and attendees (from BlogTalkRadio)
2. In-depth Blog coverage (from Josh Hallet of Hyku)
3. Flickr Photo roll (from Josh Hallet of Hyku)
4. Smart tweets tagged with #WOMMA (from WOMMA)

Over the next couple weeks, we’ll be sharing video ditties from the Conference as well as digging deeper into some of the major themes discussed in the ballroom sessions and breakout groups. Until then, then should satiate ya!

Yep, I’m putting my marketing where my mouth is as WOMMA’s in-house evangelist for all things word-of-mouth (WOM).

In this role, I will help WOMMA better communicate with its members and non-members to promote the discipline of Word-of-Mouth Marketing. I’ll also serve as a WOMMA spokesperson addressing hot-button topics covered by traditional media and discussed in conversations happening in the online social media world.  Plus, I’ll be sharing thoughts here … on the ALL THINGS WOM blog.

Those who know me, know I’ve long believed in the power of WOM to increase business sales and brand salience.  Can’t help being a believer. I’ve spent a good part of my marketing career working for two brands that baked word-of-mouth marketing principles into how it does business every day. Starbucks Coffee and Whole Foods Market both became endearing and enduring brands because they each delivered products, services, and experiences customers wanted to enthusiastically share with others.

That’s WOM in action … when people so adore something a company does that they share stories with friends/family in the offline world and with followers/fans in the online world. 

Today, companies like Zappos, Method, Apple, Lego, Fiskars, and Rackspace are all proudly flying the WOM flag high and finding success through tapping into the influential power of customers.

As a marketingologist with my Brand Autopsy consulting business, I show companies how to use basic WOM principles to turn indifferent customers into evangelical customers. When I began my practice in early 2005, one of the first steps I took was to join the just-started Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). And if you attended the first WOMMA Conference in March 2005, you probably saw me.  (I was the dude in the white smock.)

So it feels natural for me to work directly with WOMMA as their “WOM Enthusiast.”  

You’ll be hearing more from me, especially on this blog.  Together, we’ll explore the arts and sciences of WOM that sales (and fails), wrestle with ethics issues, and showcase smart analysis from bloggers about all things WOM.

 Thanks for joining me. This’ll be fun.