The Rise of WOM
WOM. Word of mouth. Next to the death of “traditional” branding, it’s one of the things you’ll heard the most about in 2006.
But let’s take a few steps back. I’ll assume you don’t have infinite time to peruse all the latest research by Jupiter, Neilsen, Emarketer, Marketing Sherpa, ClickZ, and everyone else who makes it their job to report on the latest happenings in the interactive space. (Though you really should subscribe to Emarketer’s daily blasts. They’re a great way to keep ahead of the steamroller.) So, given that, here’s an important statistic you may or may not have heard:
Over 50% of online content is now generated by users.
This means that for every NBC, ABC, CNN, MSN, Yahoo, magazine site, corporate site—all the media that the press and the marketers generate—there’s at least one corresponding piece on the blogs, forums, newsgroups, SIGs, MySpaces, ad infinitum.
And what they’re saying can drown your marketing message.
How? Well, let’s say we decide to buy keywords on Google. And we decide to broadcast these keywords out on a wide range of sites—which, today, includes many, many forums and blogs. And we polish our creative to let your audience know that you can get your latest Widget X2000 for less at your Widgetstore, and it features wonderful reliability and industry-leading features they can’t do without.
One problem: you’re now advertising next to blog posts. And forum threads. And they’re saying, well, yeah, that’s great, but maybe you should consider the Thingamigiggy Y3000 instead. And all those features, well, maybe that’s true, but some of them don’t really do much for them as an end-user. About this time, the one person who had a bad experience with your customer service chimes in to say, well, I would never buy from them anyways.
The result? They listen to each other, rather than to you. This is word of mouth. And it can negate any outreach program you have in place.
How do you combat this? Three ways:
(1) Generate ad messages that resonate with your audience, and are believable.
(2) Monitor activity on the blogs and forums, using tools such as a Technorati search, or Blogpulse.
(3) Consider sending an identified customer representative to defuse any hot issues found.
Note the importance of #3. Your liason is identified as an employee of the company. You don’t try to hide. Because the penalties for trying to “tweak” the forums are severe. People don’t like to be “handled” or steered. But a company rep, sincerely trying to help, can win them over.
Think of it as a new kind of customer service—pro-active customer service.
This is the same reason you read about the death of “traditional” branding, and why branding companies focus more and more on credibility than on raw position and personality. We’re being drowned out, and our share of voice will only decrease in the future.
Welcome to the new world of change.
Until next time,
Jason Stoddard
www.centric.com
