As much as I would have loved to blog live from the WOMMA conference this past week, my overheating laptop wasn’t as keen on the idea as I was. But I did take copious notes (ref: doodled), and have developed a list of the following top 5 list of things I learned from the 3-day event:
1) There’s no one right way to measure word of mouth. As much as I would like to claim that MGH WOM has the single best solution for measuring any word of mouth or social media campaign, I just can’t. The fact is that there’s endless ways to skin the proverbial WOM measurement cat, and different metrics may be more appealing to different clients. You may have 50,000 views on a YouTube video, but if the goal was conversion, you’ve likely done little to nothing to drive those sales. 150 new mentions on blogs mean nothing if you can’t sell in why such numbers were significant to meeting that client’s goals. The key to WOM measurement rest in communicating with one’s client (prior to the start of a campaign) to identify specific objectives, and setting metrics and benchmarks against those goals.
2) Offline WOM is great and all, but it’s just not enough. While offline word of mouth appears to hold higher levels of credibility amongst most, and thus a larger influence on purchase decisions, the impression numbers can’t begin compare with those of the online world. A person might have face-to-face conversations with 5 of their friends about a brand, but a single social media tool would allow them to reach thousands with the same type of recommendations. The credibility-factor might not be as high online, but the shear volume of potential impressions makes up for what’s lost in personal trust.
3) Do what Zappos is doing. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, was the keynote speaker during the first day of the conference, and had a lot to say about the impact of good customer service on a brand’s natural word of mouth. He’s built the company from the ground up by developing a corporate culture based on passionate people who love what they do, and who are willing to go above and beyond to make the customer happy. Zappos only hires and maintains employees who fit into this mold, and has reaped the benefits from being a thought leader in the realm of corporate culture. I could write a book about all of the things that the company does right, but they’ve already beaten me to it.
4) I like Twitter. A lot. While there were plenty of great face-to-face conversations happening at the conference, there was a totally different dialog going on in the online arena. Conference attendees used the keyword “#womma” to post regular Twitter updates as they sat through presentations, and used the site as a networking, conversational and idea-sharing tool (and sometimes as an outlet to complain about boring presentations). In fact, one group of presenters replaced their regular PowerPoint slideshow with a live stream of the Tweets from the conference, giving attendees that opportunity to see their 140-character status updates on the big screen. It was my first exposure to the microblogging tool being used at this level…and it was awesome.
5) @Comcastcares rocks. A while back, I blogged about the WOM-worthy experience I had with the Director of Digital Care at Comcast, Frank Eliason. I finally got a chance to catch up with Frank at the conference and ask him a couple of questions about his personal experiences in helping to reform a company’s struggling customer relations division. He explained that much of the success of his team came from two sources: 1) power; 2) passion. When Frank stepped into his role as Director of Digital Care with the Comcast, he had already served as a member of the company’s executive staff. This previously established rapport enabled him to get things done quickly and with attention from the higher-ups of the organization. And his passion for change enabled him to respond quickly to customer requests (a requirement in the social media space), sometimes answering questions and requests until 3 or 4 in the morning. Frank is an inspiration to the WOM world, and an overall great guy.
