Blog.

Last week the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) held its annual Summit. It’s three days of keynotes, breakouts, and connections with practitioners responsible for making word of mouth marketing happen at brands big and small.

(For a great recap of the WOMMA Summit read Vitrue’s summary (Day 1 & 2) and Steven Van Belleghem’s Day 3 recap.)

To kickoff the Summit, WOMMA premiered a new way to think about Word of Mouth Marketing.

Can there be a new way to thinking about Word of Mouth Marketing? After all… there’s nothing new with word of mouth. It’s simply someone sharing something with someone. That hasn’t changed.

What has changed is how people talk and how companies appreciate the business impact of word of mouth marketing.

Online social media has added another place for people to talk and to share something with someone. Businesses today have learned to value customer-driven conversations as being an effective marketing opportunity.

WOMMA’s new way to think about Word of Mouth Marketing links directly to having a business impact by earning customer recommendations.

WOMMA now defines Word of Mouth Marketing as… any business action that earns a customer recommendation.

Furthermore, WOMMA believes the most effective Word of Mouth Marketing is Credible, Respectful, Social, Measurable, and Repeatable.

Here’s a video ditty from Room214 Productions explaining WOMMA’s new way to think about Word of Mouth Marketing…

DISCLOSURE: I am a long-time WOMMA member. I have a hand in how WOMMA defines, articulates, and explains Word of Mouth Marketing. I also enjoy tasty tacos and once apprenticed in a Foley Studio.