360DigitalInfluence

If you’re wondering who owns the eyebrow-lift-inducing Facebook vanity “hotasianbuns”, look no further than Chicago’s own Wow Bao.  Wow Bao is a concept of Lettuce Entertain You, but it has a social media voice and plan of action all its own.   Geoff Alexander, Wow Bao’s Managing Partner joined me on a panel at WOMMA’s School of WOM and shared enough of those elements to make me want to learn more.  The personality and choices that Wow Bao has made qualify it as a Brand Worthy of a Weekend (BWOW) - a brand for whom there is a passionate set of fans that would give up a weekend with their families to come “immerse” themselves in the brand - learn more, meet the people behind the brand, and want to have a hand in crafting the brand’s future.  So what’s Wow Bao’s recipe for a talkable, weekend-worthy brand? continue reading

Day one at the WOMMA School of WOM, and a key theme has already emerged … Advocacy.

It’s on the tips of everyone’s tongues - mentioned in every session yesterday.  What I took away …

• Advocacy is a marathon, not a sprint.  Takes true commitment.
• Scaling advocacy efforts are crucial to driving sustained WOM.
  
• Share everything that’s great about your organization (and even, in certain circumstances, what’s not so great) - the honesty and transparency will engender trust.
• You gain vocal advocates by focusing on people’s hearts/minds versus their eyeballs/ears.
• Desire + Direction = Change (per Dan Heath).  The path to success is to stir up that emotional desire ->  give people clear motivation to advocate on your behalf -> make the behavior visible to make it contagious.
  

Let’s see what day two brings …

Getting jazzed for the WOMMA School of WOM confab in Chicago (my hometown) on May 24-26.  A few thoughts and tips …

Sessions

The conference is packed with great sessions.  I’m seriously impressed.  A few I’m personally keen to catch …

• Jeffrey Hayzlett of Kodak speaks on Monday from 2pm-3pm.  You might know that Hayzlett recently announced he’s leaving Kodak, which could make for a very candid session.
• Also on Monday (4:30pm-5:15pm) , Pete Blackshaw and John Stieger lead a session on P&G’s customer relations efforts as a spark for WOM.  I’ve never met Blackshaw, and am looking forward to doing so.
• On Tuesday morning, Sarah Hofstetter and Roberto Mastracola deliver a case study on Coke Zero.  When Coke speaks, I listen.
• The Tuesday keynote is from Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon.  These guys are darlings of the Chicago scene.  Very eager to hear what he has to say.
• Ogilvy’s very own Kaitlyn Wilkins will join Ford’s Marisa Bradley on Tuesday to talk about building a more social Ford Motor Company.  This is a topic near and dear to my heart; and knowing how passionate Kaitlyn is about her Ford work, I’m sure it’ll be a great discussion.
• Jason Anello of Yahoo will lead a session called “How 20 Purple Bikes Generated 20 Million Impressions.”  I’m a big Y! fan, and I’m really looking forward to hearing Jason deliver an overview of this program.

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Last week, I attended a webinar from WOMMA where WOMMA General Counsel Tony DiResta discussed the importance of disclosure across social media. This conversation normally focuses on brand-blogger relationships but the same best practices and government guidelines may also affect your Facebook Page.

Here are five things to keep in mind about your brand and disclosure on Facebook.

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With so many great insights and case studies at this year’s WOMMA in Las Vegas, it’s hard to sum it all up in one post. We saw a number of trends in insights, bringing to light the best practices from top WOM marketers.

Many of these best practices were incorporated in the Team Aquaphor campaign with Active Marketing and Beiersdorf (leading to it’s success).

Active Marketing Group works w/ teams of ambassadors (or their list of influencers) who apply for specific brand engagements/positions made available through Active Marketing Group. Featured at WOMMA was a campaign to create word of mouth around Aquaphor with Beiersdorf.

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From Rob BonDurant, VP of Marketing at Patagonia – from today’s WOMMA Summit.

Patagonia… continue reading

Upfront Disclosure: John Bell is the President of WOMMA and Managing Director of 360 Digital Influence, which means I work for him and he controls my livelihood.

Sometimes I read a blog post and feel cheated. It happens when I run into references to a product or service that seems out of place or just unnecessary. I figure the blogger is paid for the reference, but I’m never sure. Maybe they just enjoy the product. Who knows? Well, knowing is important - important enough to feel a little off-put and a little wary of both the blogger and the brand.

WOMMA targeted this lose-lose result Monday in a live webinar discussing what exactly constitutes “disclosure” regarding relationships between brands and influencers. The diverse panel agreed on a lot. If a blogger/influencer has a relationship with a brand and writes about the brand they need to disclose that relationship clearly, candidly and upfront. To put it simply, there must be no ambiguity from a reader’s perspective that a relationship exists. Suggestions on how to eliminate ambiguity varied from having two separate blogs – one personal and one for reviews (which didn’t work for one blogger) - to disclosing relationships early and often in a post - even linking to a “Terms of Engagement” document that outlines the relationship. Ultimately, having set guidelines will benefit everyone and the discussion on best practices will continue up to and through the FTC releases their updated guidelines (likely October 2009).

What struck me as most interesting was the overwhelming sentiment that those who fail to provide full and clear disclosure will be “called out” and punished by the marketplace. The correlating result is a rational and utopic conclusion – the good people win. Unfortunately, the marketplace isn’t rational. It does self-police, but not that well. With a who’s who of WOM practitioners and an active Twitter stream, it was difficult to come up with one good example of a company or influencer being punished by the marketplace for failing to disclose a relationship. continue reading

The CEO of Federated Media, Chas Edwards, presented a number of case studies from their network – and gave an overview of their thinking on social media measurement. continue reading

I’m at the Word of Mouth Marketing Associations WOMM-U event for the next day – and while there promises to be a wealth of content published here and through our team’s various twitter handles (@jbell99, @virginiamiracle, @iansohn, @tanyachadha) I’m going to focus my blog updates on measurement stories generated by the great brands in attendance.
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Check out the video below to see who won the free conference pass to WOMMA’s WOMM-U in South Beach on May 13- 14!

Thank you to everyone who participated. There were truly some great entries. Congrats to Robert Fields who wrote about a WOM campaign he is currently working on with the Salvation Army’s National Food Drive to push teen involvement within the community. You can read his entry and check out others in Kaitlyn’s post here.

See you in Miami, Robert! Please send your email address to tanya.chadha@ogilvypr.com. Thanks!