A group report from Joe Becker along with Ben Foster, Ketchum Vice President and Digital Strategist, and Stephanie Miller, Ketchum Social Media Specialist.
The 2010 Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) School of WOM was recently held in Chicago, and the social media community has been buzzing about trends, key learnings and the most-talked-about tweets. The three-day event featured best practices and case studies from some of the world’s top brands, including Coca-Cola, Best Buy, FedEx, Proctor & Gamble, Google, the IOC and Kraft Foods.
The School of WOM is led by a “faculty” of industry experts from agencies such as Zócalo Group’s Paul Rand. Nearly 300 people attended, and more than 2,500 tweets were captured with the #WOMMA hashtag. Below represents some of the most talked about tweets, which inherently represent key takeaways and trends.
Talkable Tweets
As captured from former Kodak CMO Jeffery Hayzlett:
- When asked what the ROI on social is, respond by asking what the “Return on Ignoring” is.
- If moments aren’t shared, they lose their power. That’s why FB and Twitter are so popular.
- People don’t care about your product, they care about solving their own problems.
As captured from Best Buy “Using Passionate Employees to Help Launch New Biz Opportunities”:
- Employees are an advertising channel.
- A campaign has a beginning and an end. Movements continue.
- Campaigns have language of war, movements are inspired. (i.e., charged with, launched = harsh action verbs).
As captured from Dan Heath, Co-author of Switch and Made to Stick:
- Replicate what’s working, don’t obsess on failures.
As captured from Jeanne Bliss, “Becoming a Company Customers Love and Can’t Live Without”:
- 5 decisions beloved companies make: believe, clarity of purpose, be real , be there, say you’re sorry.
- USAA has new hires eat meals that soldiers eat while in the field to create empathy for client. 98% client retention rate.
As captured from Coke Zero, “Location-based Mobile Social Marketing”:
- Access creates advocacy. Be avail and talk back.
- Coke Zero used Foursquare to let consumers know what resto’s served Coke Zero. Simple and successful engagement. Love it.
- @CokeZero activated simple social campaigns to plug into existing covo’s like checking in and leaving tips on Foursquare.
As captured from “The Difference Between Listening and Hearing”:
- Everything that people talk about is self motivated.
- Consumers share content with others if it speaks to their identity/cultural cache. Have to invoke personal identity to spark virality.
- Netnography (Internet Ethnography) is the marketer’s secret weapon. The internet is the world’s biggest focus group; use it.
- When you turn data collected from the internet into a quantitative number, you lose the anecdote or story that made it powerful.
As captured from “Using Social in Regulated Industries”:
- Plan, don’t experiment. Engage legal counsel. Revise guidelines. Train, Monitor, Measure.
As captured from Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon:
- This kid, CEO Andrew Mason, is giving the Groupon keynote in cargo shorts and a T-shirt. Classic.
- When ppl unsubscribe to Groupon, they get a chance to “punish ” whomever subscribed them. Humor and personality takes a brand far. Bc of this, many re-subscribe!
- So many companies are bad at customer service that you only have to be kinda good and ppl will appreciate you.
- Sometimes I think that we should intentionally screw up so we can apologize. Saying you’re sorry goes a long way.
As captured from FedEx “Mastering the Art of Enterprise-wise Social Media”:
- You can never reach the finish line in social.
- By using customer service reps for social media response @FedExBlog saw a 24% neg experiences turn positive.
- We aren’t in this for social PR, we’re in this for social business. We’re in it for the long haul.
As captured from P&G Tremor:
- Schemas are mental models of how the world works. Want to create a talkable brand? Interrupt peoples schemas and they’ll talk.
- Amplification w/o advocacy is a waste of time. Office Max store sales dropped 10% during “go elf yourself.” No one knew the brand behind it.
As captured from Chicago Uno’s Bar & Grill:
- In a social media crisis, If all you can legally say is “I hear you, I understand your concern” it’s better than nothing.
