The Basement

Hey Matt - Interesting point (and I'm glad i avoided your skewer!). One thing to note - I think most of the talk at the conference was about using blogs and word of mouth marketing for Big Brands, rather than for small and medium consultancies, which is what most of the firms you identified are. Now, one could most certainly argue that a small consultancy has an even BIGGER imperative to blog than a big advertiser, given what a great thought leader marketing technique they can be. But I would push back a bit on the fact that it may not be apples to relate a small consulting shop's marketing practices to the marketing practices of the megabrands to whom they consult.

Jonathan: Of course I'm being a little overly harsh here in order to make my point, but I think that WOM (and blogs by extension) works at all levels. Market research, marketing, advertising and pr segments are all very well represented in the blogosphere - vendors, peers and customers are all tuning in and contributing. While the blogosphere is not a representative sample of the real world, there are very real business conversations going on here between marketing Influentials - the customers which all of WOMMA's presenters (regardless of size) are trying to attract.

Companies who are pitching to the WOM crowd that aren't actively participating in blog conversations simply aren't equipped to even discuss the medium intelligently - much less measure it. Furthermore, by not particpating, these companies are indicating that they don't fundamentally understand how rich with "Influentials" the blogosphere is. From the perspective of a prospect evaluating WOM vendors, this should be disturbing. WOM does not favor the unmotivated, uninformed laggard. While these companies may be completely on the the ball, they appear to be laggards which might be enough to tip the scale.

To your point of size - it might excuse companies like ComBlu or VoodooVox but what's the excuse for the like of the huge "market leaders" like Burson-Marsteller, Millward Brown, Gfk NOP, Simmons, comScore Networks and Nielsen//NetRatings?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a blog zealot and I don't think they're the only thing - but they are an important thing - and companies who don't acknowledge that in meaningful ways are illustrating what silence does in an industry driven by voices.

Great post, Matt.

We actually presented at WOMMA's first event and started our blog very soon after that.

"Companies who are pitching to the WOM crowd that aren't actively participating in blog conversations simply aren't equipped to even discuss the medium intelligently - much less measure it."

Great point. We recently talked to some good people up in Baltimore about how their web presence could work better for them. We knew that they were talking to other companies and when it came to the subject of blogging, we asked that same question, "We're sure that the other companies you're talking to mentioned blogging. But how many of them HAVE blogs?"

The room went silent.

So, I agree. You have to not only talk the talk, but walk it as well.

Blogs are just one of many different word of mouth marketing techniques. The exciting thing is that companies have a great variety of tools to reach out and engage openly and honestly with consumers. Each company should use the techniques that works best for them (somethimes blogs, sometimes something else). If the goal is genuine communications, we should talk in the way that we feel most comfortable.

We've got a nice white paper that discusses this at http://www.womma.org/wom101.htm

WOMMA is here to encourage this conversation.

Andy: Well said. Thanks for weighing in on this. I think WOMMA is a wonderful organization and the work that you are doing is important. No one wants to shout at consumers. Consumers don't want to be shouted at. And as you have said, we should all work together - even if we don't quite agree.

I'm not a blog zealot. Nor do I think that WOM = blogs as some have suggested. We all understand this is myopic and naive. That said blogs are important for lots of reasons - particularly to those seriously involved with WOM - even if it's not the medium with which we feel most comfortable. I think this is especially true for experts presenting at a conference such as yours - some of which presenting explicitly about blogs without any evidence of experience interacting with blogs.

There is an idea afloat that new interactive media can be throughly understood through sideline observation. This idea itself is a relic of your "marketer shouting at consumers" era. where the consumer lives in a petrie dish. As you have said there is "a shift in the very nature of marketing" and today we - marketers and consumers - are all standing in the agar together. The difference is that some marketers don't seem to realize this yet.

WOMMA is calling for WOM in every mainstream marketing mix. And I agree. But answer me this - in this new market context, when a national consumer products company, political campaign or professional services organization comes asking for a WOM strategy in what case do you not at least consider the blogosphere as a component?

I'm sure marketers from ther era of "I Love Lucy" were most comfortable talking through the television. Times have changed. In which voice marketers are most comfortable speaking is irrelevant. As we've established, marketers are pretty comfortbale shouting. The focus needs to be on the voice to which your customer is most comfortable listening. That is, if you're interested in them hearing you. Or better still how is the customer most comfortable speaking.

If the focus is in the right place, marketers are going to have to leave their comfort zone.

It's not the only bad thing about CRM Metrix. Maybe the reason why they don't want their material published is becuause none is proprietor and because there "technology" is based on the ones of other companies