360DigitalInfluence

I’m with several Ogilvy PR 360 DI colleagues and a couple of hundred other marketers at The Word of Mouth Marketing Association University (WOMMA-U).  Look out for blog posts here and check out Twitter #WOMMA.

Geoff Donaker, COO, Yelp kicked off the morning session at WOMMA-U with a session called Empowering Consumers With Local Knowledge.

A few takeaways from Geoff’s presentation:

• The good news for both businesses and WOM marketers is that every chart we’ve seen this morning is sloping up and to the right (in other words, more people are talking more frequently about more brands).
• Businesses have a love/hate relationship with WOMM … they love it when it goes well.
• Small businesses (some would argue, the engine of the American economy and spirit) have a lot to gain from WOMM, but are still just as afraid to relinquish control of their brand as are large brands.
• Utilizing WOMM can drive down marketing costs, but your customer service has to deliver … if you are going to rely on what people say about you (vs. advertising, where you say what you want about yourself) you have to deliver a stellar experience and respond to/fix the not-so-stellar ones.
• Manufactured reputation usually backfires … you can’t manufacture WOM.  You can provide the tools, the dialogue, the forum and the product – but the community will do with all that what they please.
• Your brand’s promoters, fence-sitters and detractors can, and should, be engaged.  In fact, engaging with detractors in an honest conversation can make for a big net-net win for your brand.  Don’t just celebrate your fans, always look to make new ones (or at least neutralize the negativity).
• While quantity of positive of WOM is good, quality is even better.