Key Takeaways

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas – right? Not this time!

This eBook examines the valuable word of mouth marketing trends presented through case studies and

Keynotes at WOMMA Summit 2011.

In partnership with NM Incite – WOMMA gathered some dynamite trends and takeaways from 14 different attendees. They hail from brands and agencies, the U.S. and abroad.

These complement the over 22,000 social posts that poured in during the conference.

Highlights:

• The Science of Content

• The Core of Word of Mouth Marketing

• Most talkable brands, topics, trends and tweets

• Over a dozen key takeaways from Summit attendees

2

WOMMA Summit 2011 Takeaway Rundown

4 Most Retweeted | Top Tweeters | Demographics

5 – 7 Measurement Dynamics | 2012 Trends | Offline Research

8 Top Topics, Brands, and Tweets

9 – 12 Advocacy | Real-Time Marketing | The Top 5 “A- Ha!” List | The WOMM Core

13 Most Buzzed about Speakers

14 – 17 Shared Media | Social Scale | Paid, Earned, & Owned Media | The Science of Content

18 The Social Volume Breakdown

19 – 22 WOMM from Abroad | Measuring Results Through Engagement | Social Conscience | Going Big

23 Social Volume by the Numbers

3

Understanding Word of

Mouth Measurement Through its Dynamics The wide variety of case studies and research-based presentations at the WOMMA Summit 2011 underscored the same message: It is time to show the impact of word of mouth marketing

programs – whether they take place online or offline. The question is how do we create noteworthy, measurable results? The case studies showed that integrated word of mouth marketing campaigns perform stronger than single-method ones. Social media initiatives augment program impact, when they are bundled with PR and/or

media buys. Mattel‟s presentation on Barbie and Ken‟s rekindled love is an example of such an integrated approach. Mattel also shows us that it takes a persistent platform with multiple amplification initiatives to build momentum, sustain word of mouth and see tangible business results.

WOMM Dynamics

To measure success, marketers have to understand word of mouth dynamics and information flows unique to their category. Are consumers more likely to talk about the brand online or offline? What does that mean for marketing and sales? For instance, a multi-

disciplinary study (Peres, Shachar and

Lovett, 2011)--which coalesced online buzz data from NM Incite and offline word of mouth data from the Keller Fay Group, along with Young and Rubicam‟s Brand Asset Valuator and a near 5,000 people survey--showed that media and entertainment were most talked about online, while beverages, food and dining lead offline word of mouth. Consumers were highly likely to

talk about technology and cars, both online and offline. WOMMA Summit 2011 re-iterated that word of mouth marketers cannot rely on the hope that a creative idea will be enough to make waves. It takes creativity and strategic planning. Brands need broad platforms where marketers can implement numerous initiatives over time, based on a

nuanced understanding of consumer behavior, culture and media.

Idil Cakim VP of Client Development NM Incite @idilcakim

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3 Trends That Will Make

or Break Your Business in

the Next 3 Years In this challenging economy and rapidly evolving marketplace where crowd-sourced word spreads like wildfire a brand can be "in" today and "out" tomorrow. Only the brands that

anticipate and respond to what the crowd is saying will thrive. Here are 3 top trends from WOMMA Summit 2011 that brands need to address as soon as possible: Mobile Explosion

Mobile is ramping up faster than any technology we have seen in the past.

By the end of 2011, over half of Americans will own smart-phones. 2012 will be known as the year of the smart-phone and your entire business will succeed or fail based on how it renders in or interacts with consumers' phones within 3 years. Many Facebook experiences that have been built are not consumable on a mobile device. This needs to be fixed ASAP. Mobile

can't be stressed enough. Social Consciousness

Consumers want and expect companies to contribute as much to the betterment of the world and solving

social problems as to their own self-

interest. They are shifting their own behavior to mindful consumption. When given a choice, they will transact with the company that is socially conscious. Consumer Distrust

Increasingly, consumers don't trust or listen to brands. This explains why research shows when social media was

combined with other media consumers were 2 to 7 times more likely to transact with the brand. Of the 3 types of media – paid, earned and owned – the biggest growth is in earned. Earned will eventually overtake other media. Consumer attention span used to be 20 minutes, now it's 9 seconds. In a competitive environment the brands

that can quickly engage consumers with fresh, relevant content and make it simple for the consumer to interact will capture market share.

Deborah Holland EVP Publishers Clearing House @DeborahJHolland

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The Next Generation of Offline Research Many brands are starting to understand the importance of brand word of mouth within social media. As long as conversation occurs online they can see it, analyze it, measure it, and even scrape together some budget to play with it.

If only that awkward statistic about real world word of mouth would go away. You know the one. The old chestnut informing us that 90% of word of mouth happens offline. And according to Keller Fay‟s latest research unveiled at the Summit, it ain‟t shifting.

This reluctance to tackle offline WOM stems from its complexity and the challenges of quantitative measurement; but at the Summit, several speakers strove to bring science to the offline scene. One such was Australian agency Soup. Soup discovered that roughly 50% of Facebook users had a tight overlap between their offline and online social

networks. Within those, each had an average of 8.5 distinct clusters of friends, with 29 in each, and 2.9 connections between any two friends. This is early stage stuff but shows how integrated thinking can help us better segment and target.

Prof Barak Libai‟s research with Pursway

attempted to build a picture of consumers‟ real world social networks from their purchasing behavior. By analyzing credit card data to identify „together shoppers‟ – individuals who repeatedly purchase items in the same stores within short intervals – they can build “a hybrid online/offline social graph” which ranks an individual‟s influence according to their ability to

drive others to buy. The approach is ridden with challenges, but original and exciting. As Google‟s Senior UX Researcher Paul Addams says, “our online social networks are simply a crude representation of our offline social networks. We have a long way to go before getting anywhere close to the complexity of real life.” Although

understanding brand word of mouth is only in its infancy, we must continue to push for that complexity; not retreat into accessible but ultimately inadequate approaches that remain limited by technology.

Molly Flatt Social Business Director 1000heads @mollyflatt @1000heads Email

7

A Push Towards Advocacy Every brand has a Facebook page, a Twitter handle and most have a YouTube channel. Now what? At the WOMMA Summit 2011, it became clear the focus is about moving those fans and followers to

become a brand‟s best buddy otherwise known as advocates. Just like my best friend would talk me up (right, Erick?), marketers are actively seeking ways to get their existing community to talk them up. It‟s not enough to just acquire fans/followers because any good media buy or acquisition campaign will do that. It‟s now about converting an acquaintance (i.e.

fan/follower) to a BFF. Lots of ways to were discussed to help make those conversions. Ryan Davis of Blue State Digital discussed how his agency created advocacy during the 2008 Obama campaign. One way was by being 100% transparent with their communities. When their campaign hit a low point, they immediately went to YouTube and posted videos of their

campaign manager candidly speaking about their progress (or lack thereof) and talking through his proposed game plan.

So often we use social media to

promote our achievements but who really likes being around a friend who brags all the time? I know personally, some of the best bonding moments with my friends were during low points in our lives, and we worked through it together. It made us stronger. Same goes for brands. When we humanize a brand it‟s easier for a consumer to relate and, consequently, become a

buddy and not just a “Like”. Our founder at Mr Youth, Matt Britton, spoke with P&G‟s Kerri Christian about how to cultivate advocacy with college students. The program allows students to experience the brand benefits first-hand while being educated about it in a language they understand because it‟s coming from

another student not a commercial. WOMMA Summit 2011 showed that it‟s time to get serious about cultivating friendships - not counting our “Likes”. After all, I‟d rather have 1 best friend than 10 acquaintances.

Joe Fairless Management

Supervisor

Mr Youth @JoeFairless LinkedIn

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The Era of Real-Time

Marketing As expected, I learned a lot, made some great new contacts, and indulged my senses at WOMMA Summit 2011 in Las Vegas. What exceeded my expectations is how unbelievably inspired and motivated I emerged from the three days in Sin City about the

future of this profession that we are all devoting most of our waking hours to – Marketing. I learned that our profession is evolving quickly from a bias for one-way sales- manship and sometimes exaggeration, to a bias for participation, collabora-tion, authenticity and transparency. Effective marketing will no longer be

measured by concept or copy score, but by people‟s real reactions to real propositions in real time. Marketers will no longer hide behind spreadsheets and focus group glass but emerge to share the job of brand-building with their loyal enthusiasts. For example, Sephora has nurtured a group of super-users to help like-minded beauty enthusiasts find the products and get the look they desire.

I learned that brands are stepping away from traditional vehicles like TV to give consumers authentic experiences that change brand perception. For example, Chevy sought to change

negative perceptions by giving young

influential hipsters at South-By-Southwest rides in their latest models, including the Volt. I learned that the traditional Marketing approach of “learn, then do” must be turned on its head as consumers will tell us what is relevant and meaningful in real time and we must respond immediately, doubling down on what

works and shutting down what doesn‟t. I learned that planning cycles are being reduced from years to months to days to minutes. For example, the 2008 Obama campaign‟s most successful fundraising e-mail came not by a planned release, but from a spontaneous, real-time reaction to comments made by a Republican adversary. “Learn Do” has become “Do Learn”.

Chris Laird CEO P&G Tremor @ChrisjLaird

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The Top Five “A-Ha!” List Escalate always flies home from WOMMA

events with tired brains. Why? Because

WOMMA events offer up mountains of

intellectually challenging insights. After

each WOMMA event, those who attend

share a “Top 5 A-Ha” list, plus our

comments, with the entire agency. Here is

our “Top 5” list from WOMMA Summit 2011

plus our headline comments on why they

made the list:

Stand Out or Don’t Bother

Our brains are hardwired to fascinate and

be fascinated; you can either have the

biggest budget or be the most

fascinating. Sally Hogshead, WOMMA

keynote speaker, gave a riveting

framework that directly applied to our

efforts. WOM is never about the biggest

budget; WOM is always about engaged

conversation. Perhaps that is why WOM

delivers more effective results than “big

budget” MARCOM spends.

Engagement is a 24/7 Job

Recognize, encourage, acknowledge,

question, and surprise & delight or people

won‟t care about you. It‟s about 365 days

a year, not 360 degrees of message

contact points. Many of our clients follow

the Integrated Marketing

Communications (IMC) model. We

encourage them to evolve their model

beyond IMC to our Integrated

Engagement PlanTM (IEP) approach.

Return on Relationship (ROR)

How can a brand make my life better,

more exciting, and provide value?

Escalate has long described this

as “Marketing with your consumer, not at

them.” It was great to hear this come

„back‟ to us, albeit in very different words.

Off-Line Conversations about Brands Still

Dominate (90%) All Measured WOM

While there remains great excitement,

focus and investment in Online WOM (or

“dWOM,” or “Social Media” or…)

numerous sources continue to indicate the

much larger size and greater (even when

indexed) impact of Offline WOM.

Measure Influence and then Engage

with those who BOTH care about your

brand/service/category AND can get an

authentic message to more people who

will want to hear it. Influencers aren‟t just

people with cool jobs. So any effort to find

true influencers requires a more

sophisticated effort than many currently

put in. We must all always challenge

ourselves to be true to the definition of

Influencer and the level of sophistication

required to find them.

As always, the WOMMA Summit

challenged us to think…and think

hard…about what we do and how we do

it.

Stu Sheldon Co-President Escalate @EscalateTweets

11

The Core of Word of Mouth Word of mouth marketing is evolving. A few years ago, word of mouth marketing was mainly about creating buzz through campaigns. The keynotes and many of the cases at WOMMA Summit 2011 clearly showed that word of mouth is a consequence of being a

remarkable company. Word of mouth is a consequence, not a goal. Companies that create top products and offer wonderful services are conversation-worthy brands. If that basic layer is guaranteed, creative and open communication can increase the quantity of positive and impactful conversations about this company.

But there is more. So far, companies have used the consumer too opportunistically. Consumers can do more than just talk about our brand. Consumers can do more than share your advertising with their network. The biggest opportunity to leverage the power of consumers is to collaborate with them.

2011 was the year when people actively meddled in the development of society. “Occupy Wall Street” lives in more than 1000 cities. We had the Arab Spring. The Bank of America had to adapt its policy recently after one single consumer started a petition

That more than 300,000 people signed.

The only way for your brand to stay relevant is to involve consumers in everything your brand does. Consumer collaboration implies actively listening to consumers, but also implementing their ideas. It implies bringing brand fans together; creating communities where these fans can talk with each other. Create a place where

they can debate about the future of your category and your brand. Let them help in setting your company‟s future. WOMMA Summit 2011 showed me that word of mouth is about defining your company's identity and bringing that identity to life. The best place to start is with your own employees (just like the

guys from Zappos & Groupon told us) and with your customers (just like the people from Sephora told us). Use the positive power of the people by building a bridge between your employees and your consumers. Collaboration is part of the future of word of mouth marketing.

Prof. Steven Van Belleghem Partner InSites Consulting @steven_insites Email

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Who Owns Shared Media? Throughout the 3-day Summit, the topic of Shared Media was mentioned in a number of panels and presentations. It was introduced as a new Media type, joining the traditional Owned, Paid and Earned Media channels. Shared media refers to the documented engagement between a brand and a consumer where that engagement is reflected in both of their networks and not fully owned by either entity. In layman‟s terms, when you like or comment on a brand‟s Status Update or post on the wall of a brand‟s Facebook page, a physical record of your action now exists on both the brand‟s Page and your personal Profile. The brand doesn‟t exclusively own the content, nor does the consumer. The content is partially owned and partially earned, thus the content results in Shared Media. Shared Media is becoming an increasingly important and valuable channel for brands as it relates to brand awareness and discovery on the social Web. Search engine giants such as Google and Bing have announced changes in their algorithms to include Shared Media as a factor in Search Engine Result Placement (SERP) for brands. These shifts fundamentally put Shared Media and Word of Mouth at the core of marketing strategies that take into account Owned, Paid, and Earned Media to generate Shared Media on behalf of the brand.

A great example of this was provided in the Mattel case study reintroducing Ken into the market. Mattel and its agency outlined how they effectively used the Owned, Paid and Earned media to generate Shared Media in an integrated marketing campaign. They used the Owned channels of Barbie & Ken, such as a microsite and the brands social channels on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Hulu, Foursquare etc. They also partnered with Match.com, Magnolias Bakery, Dylan‟s Candy Bar and Christies Auction House to drive further awareness. From a Paid Media perspective they used billboards, magazines, blogs and other display placements to generate additional awareness. The combination of efforts resulted in tons of Word of Mouth, which generated Earned and Shared media as consumers posted comments, referred their friends and discussed the brand within their social graphs. They even crowdsourced consumers allowing them to choose the next career for Barbie, which will ultimately affect new product development.

Nichole Goodyear Strategic Advisor Extole @ngoodyear Linkedin

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Social Scale Through Better Measurement Social marketing is a fast moving place. As exciting as it is to see the latest social marketing practices and success stories at WOMMA Summit 2011, it‟s the evolution of the measurement discussion that is most interesting. Measurement of this stuff has come a

long way since the early days of word of mouth marketing. Marketers have had to rely on various evaluations of influence and engagement to determine the business impact of social marketing. While these evaluations are informative, they are not financial metrics so they can‟t always be used to make strategic

marketing decisions. This has held a lot of companies back. Without the appropriate investment, marketers can‟t realize the full sales potential social media has to offer. That‟s all changing. Measurement firms are now taking proven analytic testing processes and applying them to social media to measure its business impact in financial terms. It‟s not just online sales

that are being counted. These practices are now incorporating various offline data sources to get a clear picture of how social is impacting purchases in the retail store.

Success is no longer defined by the

subjective and inexact assessments of influence and engagement. It‟s now about the same metrics used with all other media investments - incremental sales and ROI. The ability to compare social sales and ROI “apples-to-apples” with other marketing initiatives gives marketers the confidence to scale social initiatives to more accurately represent the sales, revenue and profit

it is generating for the business. It‟s an exciting time in social marketing right now. The role social in the marketing mix is evolving and that came through loud and clear at WOMMA Summit 2011. It‟s less about digital teams creating slick Facebook pages and videos they hope will go viral - it‟s about making social an integral part of a company‟s marketing

strategy. It‟s about focusing on customers and building the types of advocacy that drives measureable sales. WOMMA Summit 2011 has proven that growing and measuring social is now a critical part of marketing.

Brian Cavoli Director, Marketing BzzAgent @bcavoli @bzzagent Email

15

What 2012 Will Bring to

Paid, Owned, and

Earned Media The interest around paid, owned and earned media (POEM) at WOMMA Summit 2011 was intense and signals the significance this marketing strategy will play in 2012. Although it‟s been a

widely discussed topic over the years, only recently have we broken down the silos and developed the tools, strategies and tactics to legitimize this approach. However, while there is greater clarity, there are still many unanswered questions about execution. That said, here are a few predictions of how POEM will unfold in 2012.

Content Marketing via Influencers

The definition of “influencer” will extend well beyond those with juiced up social media activity. Instead, marketers will identify their brands‟ most influential authors and leverage their “influential content” to support the brand story. A New Lens on Metrics

Social media‟s impact on marketing has forced brands to reevaluate the accuracy of traditional ROI metrics, such as CTR, impressions and CPM. In 2012, we will uncover a new breed of metrics that address social media‟s

impact on advertising ROI, such as

content interaction rates and its impact on online and offline conversions.

Improved Marketing Solutions

For marketers, the holy grail of paid, earned and owned is the integration of all three disciplines into a unified social advertising experience. Over the next 12 months, we will see the introduction of advertising solutions that incorporate

editorial content and social elements into the ad. This model will transform paid media into a social vehicle that amplifies earned and owned assets. While these are only predictions, it‟s hard to deny that the paid, owned and earned ecosystem will attract the lion‟s share of attention in 2012. This is an exciting time for social media and

online advertising we‟re excited to see how it unfolds.

Fred Han Director of Marketing Communications & PR NetShelter Technology Media @FredFunk

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The Science of Content Content has always been a key topic at WOMMA events; however at the WOMMA Summit 2011, the insight around the structure applied and science used to create a content strategy was elevated. Brands who act like publishers are:

• Creating a content supply chain for

organizing and amplifying content

• Building a content journey that maps to the customer‟s journey through the purchase path

• Structuring an editorial program specific to each target segment based on themes and topics from conversational analysis

• Identifying the media formats and social channels most effective to reach a specific audience segment

Another big takeaway related to content is the demonstrated success brands are having with publishing curated 3rd party content via social media. One example provided was a mix of 30% created and 70% curated.

Insights were also provided around the idea that online communities will often respond better to curated content when it is fun, engaging and has a strong affinity within the community. This is where the science comes into play. There are an increasing number

of tools that can analyze a community,

on Facebook for example, and based on data such as aggregated common interests, yield insights into relevant off brand content that community members will be more engaged with – very exciting. Also, the ability to test is helping brands figure out what types of content and media types receive the most visibility,

engagement, sharing, click-through and ultimately conversion. Competition for achieving visibility and engagement with published content is increasing as more companies invest in social. Having good, unique content is not enough anymore. Content needs to have a major WOW factor in order to attain visibility in search engines and

social networks, where algorithms are becoming increasingly advanced at identifying and rewarding the best content. After all, there is no engagement without content and engagement is the cornerstone of a successful social media or WOMM program.

Ben Castelli Agency Director Room 214 @BenCastelli

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From Istanbul with WOMM It has been a week since I got back from WOMMA Summit 2011 in Las Vegas and now I can say that it wasn‟t just a marketer‟s daydream. It was all real. Throughout this fabulous conference, I

met valuable contacts from all over the world. Mutual business relationships have already started and I can confidently say that this year‟s Summit will show positive results in my balance sheet. WOMM research always fascinates me as we don‟t have much of that in Turkey yet. Although the Turkish market

is one of the best markets for WOMM practices in terms of scale and culture, we don‟t have many aspects of WOMM explored here. So to me, listening to presentations about measurement was priceless. I came back with a long to-do list. This is what we all wish for from a conference. Another important benefit was

confirming the validity of some WOMM tools we‟re using by gut feeling. We‟re all in WOMM business, so this was a great opportunity to learn from one another. This brought the pleasant

feeling of confidence and excitement

to move forward. It‟s amazing to see how one conference can bring such positive business results in such a short period of time. The dream illusion was a mixture of great speeches, great content and fabulous people not to mention the

fun. And now I realize that it wasn‟t just a Vegas dream, it was a real WOMMA success. Thank you and see you next year.

Renan Tavukçuoğlu General Manager FikriMuhim @RenanT Email

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Driving Measureable

Results with the Art and

Science of Engagement Tarah Feinberg at iCrossing offered a thought provoking and innovative take on mapping social media efforts directly to sought-after business outcomes. Can social media actually drive real business value for marketers? What if social media could do all these things we want it to do: drive traffic, increase sales, create social inventory, increase conversion, drive audience development and insights, provide CRM, and fuel new content ideas and products? Tarah‟s take on this: the key involves establishing a strategic social media practice within a company that combines marketing, PR, creative and digital with a focus on driving specific business objectives and a focus on how to get there. Currently, there‟s a great deal of “disintermediation” happening because brands and audiences no longer have a media machine coming between them. Now BRAND – MEDIA – AUDIENCE are interconnected: audiences create their own media while brands can communicate in a much more integrated fashion. How can you maintain visibility with Facebook and Twitter being an immensely noisy place unless you know how to filter? Brands often find themselves unsure how to measure in different cases and most struggle to develop best practices. Marketers have to think about what metrics matter to a particular brand (instead of just counting things such as the number of Facebook fans and taking it beyond day-to-day audience management). We have to sift through the noise of metrics just like we have to curate content overload. We need to map measurement and performance analysis directly to business values. We also need to establish an internal governance foundation for engaging

on any social network that delineates:

• Rules of engagement with our audiences

• Best practices: what‟s proven in industry through competitive analysis and trial

• Rules of Moderation and Escalation: establish a pathway to get quick approval on time-sensitive responses

• Localization: how will audience nuances in translation, time zones or cultures be addressed

• Scalability of efforts

Next, unlock business value by moving beyond counting your social media metrics to business outcomes: • You have to know what you care about and

what matters most to your business

• The lifetime value of customer acquired through social is 2-3x the value of a customer acquired from search.

• Key = developing the right KPIs, such as: reach (to drive awareness), traffic (to drive action), and extension (to drive advocacy)

• Define a test to assess the validity of social media metrics against your KPI‟s

• Did you actually drive revenue from Facebook? What are the right metrics that contribute to this: fans, likes, re-tweets, comments, shares, views, or referral traffic

By moving away from campaigns to initiatives that have potential to become ongoing brand programs, you can reinvest, optimize and grow initiatives in a very agile way based on changing business outcomes. Create a brand social media laboratory in which you can test, learn, and integrate the best into ongoing tactics. When you find out which initiatives best do that, add them to your brand‟s “Dynamic Playbook” of how you can best engage, activate, and capture.

Stacy DeBroff CEO Mom Central @StacyDeBroff

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Social Conscience

Not only has the world become unarguably

more socially connected, but evidence

suggests that at the same time the world is

becoming more socially conscience, and

brands must play an active role in building a

better world through social media.

As author Simon Mainwaring pointed out in his

WOMMA keynote, there appears to be a

growing trend for change in traditional free-

market capitalism as we know it today.

Mainwaring believes that a drastic shift in free

enterprise is needed to create a better world

– and this will require a transformation of both

corporations and consumers.

Consumers around the world, in every

economic category, are connecting in real

time and in very far-reaching means as never

before as a result of new and emerging

Internet-based communications platforms

such as email, blogs, forums, Facebook and

Twitter. But in addition to the commonplace

personal updates for which many use social

media today, these omnipresent social tools

also allow consumers to quickly, easily and

publically expose bad corporate behavior by

raising their voices in protest. Conversely,

consumers can also reward conscionable

and well-intentioned brands with “Likes,”

purchases, referrals and recommendations.

More than ever, consumers have the power

to both reward and punish, and to build great

momentum for these actions through

networking and collaboration.

Clearly, the rise of social media gives

consumers new leverage to persuade

corporations to accept greater responsibility

for their behaviors, while at the same time

offering corporations opportunities to

strengthen ties to their consumers.

To be successful in the 21st century, brands

need to redirect their thinking from building

profits to building social capital. Consumers

are increasingly drawn to brands that convey

a larger social meaning. Brands need to

solicit consumers as their partners in change

by building social capital and allowing

consumers to co-create the brand and the

world in which they want to live. This

approach will drive fan action.

Social media empowers consumers by

awakening their collective social

consciousness to the possibilities of change.

But consumers must begin by changing their

own behaviors. Consumers must practice

thoughtful and socially responsible

consumption, becoming involved in social

entrepreneurship, and leveraging their

investments to influence corporations to

change.

As a business professional navigating the new

social world in which we live, I will use my

social networks to actively espouse Simon

Mainwaring‟s social conscience ideals. He

has challenged me to think about the new

reins of power we each hold as consumers

and business leaders as a result of the social

media tools we use every day, and the new

responsibility we now carry to make positive

change in the world.

Chris Garrity Director of Customer Experience Astute Solutions @CWGarrity

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Go Big or Don’t Bother

Evolution and Changes

As WOMM continues to evolve from more of a one-to-many broadcast model to a dialogue between an organization and their customers, social media will come to play an even more critical role. The move towards a desire to know what a user is saying about a

product or service presents a greater opportunity for brands to better communicate with their customers. Currently available social media platforms are shifting power into the hands of the customer – and new tools are going to market every day. The ability for one to share his or her unfiltered experiences with friends, families and peer groups will hold a

heavier influence over buying (or not buying) than ever before. It is no longer okay to shout at your customers what you think is important. Paying attention is critical. Listening and responding are keys to a business‟ success.

A Real Chance for Failure

Sally Hogshead‟s keynote speech about making what you do count really

resonated. Her mantra “go big or don‟t bother” is central to Nology Media‟s plans for 2012 and to what makes our company unique. All of our decisions will reflect this. Staff members will be

Megan Montplaisir Director of Social Media Nology @mmontplaisir

well versed in her concept of Fascinate, and asked to apply these two ground

rules when setting goals:

1. Your goal must expose you to a very real chance of failure.

2. Your goal must be big enough and important enough to proclaim a true purpose for your work.

Allowing this concept to permeate Nology Media‟s corporate culture will help us make great ideas become a

reality. It will fuel our creative process. The winners in this scenario are our clients, who will be the beneficiaries of inspired work.

22

WOMMA Rundown WOMMA is the premier non-profit trade association dedicated to

advancing and advocating the discipline of credible word of mouth marketing.

For Membership Info, Contact Jason Dent

312-853-4400 x201 JasonDent@WOMMA.org

Member Demographics

2012 WOMMA Education

Jan. 24 Community Manager Certificate Program – Module 1 Community Specialist

Feb. 21 WOMM-COM Fundamentals

May 7-9 WOMMA School of WOMM Chicago, IL

June 5 WOMM-COM Fundamentals

July 10 Community Manager Certificate Program – Module 2 Community Manager

July 31 WOMM-COM Social Customer Care

Nov. 14-16 WOMMA Summit – Las Vegas, NV

Nov. 27 Community Manager Certificate Program – Module 3 Community Strategist

Dates subject to change

More on 2012 WOMMA Education

For Education Info, Contact Megan Laatsch

312-853-4400 x215 Megan@WOMMA.org