360DigitalInfluence

Yesterday was the first day of the annual WOMMA conference- a meeting of brands, agencies, researchers, and social media companies, who are all dedicated to the ethical execution of powerful, impactful word of mouth marketing campaigns.   Check out the site for live blogging and a live video stream throughout the day.

As John said in his opening statements, word of mouth is at its tipping point.   In the past year we’ve seen major brands and government agencies embracing word of mouth, and with companies watching their budgets in  ’09,  word of mouth has potential to be a cost-effective  solution.

The day kicked off with  a  keynote  by Tony, from Zappos (@zappos), and moved into breakout sessions  featuring  compelling cases, and practical “how-to” workshops.  The main trends from Day 1 included:

Community:   Community  was a buzzword across almost all of the sessions and cases.   The power of communities to influence one another and propel brands forward was highlighted again and again.

• HP activated  influencers to build awareness and consideration for the Dragon.    And the tremendous success of  the program was due  to the fact that 31 bloggers working together formed a  community that was more powerful than the sum of the individuals.
• Frank from @comcastcares and David Alston of Radian6  empower employees to work as brand ambassadors (Hi David), and  to build and grow community internally.

Measurement:   The need for measurement, and the question of how to sell WOM programs up the ladder, also continues to be a major topic.   A few recommendations that came out of the day:

• Consider pilot programs:  use smaller budgets to execute targeted programs and measure all aspects of output and impact to prove incremental value.
• Listen: demonstrate that people are using all types of media to talk about your brand.   Track mentions, tonality, and share of voice, and share specific quotes to stress the importance to executives. As Sean O’Driscoll said in a fantastic session - “what is the ROI of your brand not being out there?”

Passion:  Passion seemed to be on everyone’s lips yesterday, with Tony setting the tone with Zappo’s passion for corporate culture and customer service.

• Brands have the ability to enable their fans and customers to share and cultivate their passions.   Companies like Fiskars, Microsoft and HP have focused not on their products, but instead on what they enable their customers to do.
• Accelerade, a “David” to Gatorade’s “Goliath” has discovered the importance of passion, by working at a grassroots level  by enabling and creating ambassadors out of  more than 300,000 triathletes, bikers, and runners all around the country.

Overall, lots of smart people, big ideas, and much to learn.   You can follow along today on Twitter with #womma.   More to come!