WOM, or word of mouth, is quite popular these days. They have their own association – WOMMA.
I have concerns about WOM (as it is being discussed by some today) as well as guerilla marketing. I don’t see these issues being discussed as transparently as I believe they should be. Now, I may have missed some posts by some people, to be sure. But, some of those I have found are even a bit – frightening.
…WOM,
by those that practice and evangelize it as a tactic,
requires a clear statement of transparency by the firm practicing it…
WOM is by far the marketing tactic most susceptible to error, inaccuracy and transparency woes, in my opinion. The simplest illustration would be the old game of putting 20 people in a circle and letting a story filter around from one to the other. Just give the first participant a scripted three or four paragraph story and let them whisper it to the next in line. When the 20th recipient of this story recites her/his version to the group, you can be assured of giggle and groans. Happens every time.
Now, take that and magnify it with millions of blogs. Sure, with blogs you do have the longtail back to the original link (sometimes). But, let us not forget that bloggers are *not* journalists and do not play by any rules.
The argument I hear most often to counter these concerns is “caveat emptor” – let the buyer (reader) beware. But, we went away from that years ago, didn’t we? Now it is “let the seller beware” and that means social responsibility and transparency from business, government and nonprofits. Is the globe – or clock – spinning backwards?
Guerilla marketing has problems, too. The instance I think of most often is the paid participant that wanders into a coffee shop and sits down with a laptop. They begin either playing with software or surfing a particular site. Another paid participant comes in and sits near the first to casually sit, first … then observe the other … finally to ‘vocally’ call attention to what they are doing. This brings in the ‘marks’ at surrounding tables to look in and, perhaps, participate.
Kindly put, this is a flim-flam. Blatantly stated – it is a flim-flam… even if the ‘marks’ are made aware at the end of the exercise. A blog seeking to do the same, it no different – really. So, where are the statements by those espousing blogs and these tactics? Not enough talk about it from the most highly visible bloggers, in my opinion.
I have an email exchange from Matt Galloway, the developer of our first link’s site – Buzz-o-phone. Now, be sure that you understand *I do not* claim that Matt is guilty of the above infractions … nor, do I believe his intention is to cause harm. But, whenever I see these kinds of tactics unveiled, it makes me think of damage control and contingency planning. I will post the conversation with Matt – with his permission – later on.
Wikis are the focus of our second link. Elizabeth Albrycht has a great article about wikis in business. And there is a new ‘wiki search engine’ at Qwika. So, check both of them out. Elizabeth’s article should be required reading – not only for my students – but every person interested in online communication and collaboration.
- Welcome to Buzz-o-phone!
How would you counsel businesses to approach this new feed of consumer backlash for their product(s), service(s), brand(s) or company?
(tags: buzz CSR CSM customers complaints PR public+relations)
- Qwika – a wiki search engine
Qwika is a search engine designed specifically to search wikis. Our aims are to cover all sizeable wikis in all sizeable languages, translate them, make them easily findable in the shortest possible time.
(tags: wiki search wiki+search)
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