I attended the WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) conference last week in Las Vegas. In past years WOMMA has been one of the highlights of our marketing education and this year was no exception. Meeting up with peers, brands, and thought leaders in WOMM gives us a fantastic perspective on what’s happening in our industry and how others are leveraging WOM to create unique and engaging marketing programs. As I listened to the speakers and networked with my fellow attendees, I noticed a few common themes began to surface:
Twitter – Social media is always a large part of the WOMMA conference. After all, it is one of the best mechanisms for spreading WOM online. This year we were all atwitter about Twitter. Every third person at WOMMA (including me!) spent the conference tweeting presenter sound bites, planning in-face meetings (called tweet-ups), and getting to know each other over the twitterverse. Figures on how many people are using Twitter are actually hard to come by, but some estimate it’s as many as 11 million users. With that many users, it’s become obvious to marketers and brands alike that Twitter is here to stay. So, as marketers, how do we use it?
On day one, keynote speaker Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, talked about the company’s unique culture and corporate transparency via twitter.
Hsieh has his own public twitter account that consumers can use to communicate with him and over the years he has encouraged over 450 Zappos employees to join twitter as well. Together they field customer service questions, earnings inquiries, and describe a day in the life of a Zappos employee.
Additionally, Zappos has set up a website that tracks any mention of their company on twitter. The good, the bad and the frivolous are all documented on this online WOM community. Zappos is a fantasic example of a young cutting edge company using social media to create an online culture, amplify their own WOM and set themselves apart with excellent customer service.