People at MGH have pulled me aside after a new business meeting and told me that half the room looked scared to death when I described the threads of a truly bad-ass WOM campaign. I guess it’s the vast network of tentacles including crazy posts, re-posts, consumer sound-offs and real-time adjustments that make it hard for old dogs to you know, learn new tricks.
So, we’ve established a simple detangling tool that allows us to present single threads to our clients and gives them the AH-HAH! moment they’re hoping for. We like to call it the “Detangling Project” because I love the image of wrangling free from a 57-tentacle machine that is an assertive WOM campaign.
Here’s what we do:
- Isolate a thread: Examine the track one post, message, comment, or discussion followed from start to finish.
- Graph it: This changes for each situation, but there are numerous graphic formats used to track WOM threads. I happen to like the web.
- Explain it: Use pictures, samples, anecdotes and data to help build a context for the thread.
- Contrast it: Show how this single thread is similar to, or unique from, the other tentacles co-existing within the campaign.
This is obviously a simplified version, but the meat of the program can’t be disclosed or every wannabe agency in town will be detangling.
