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March 07, 2008
The Society for Word of Mouth
True word of mouth is more than creating a viral video or launching a buzz campaign.
True word of mouth emanates from a grassroots-driven community that inspires passion and customer evangelism. It's a sustainable, long-term form of word of mouth that can build brands. There's countless ways to think about making that happen, which is part of the challenge.
That's why Jackie and I are introducing the Society for Word of Mouth.
The purpose of SWOM is two-fold: to be a free social network for the individual true believers of word of mouth (or the merely curious who seek enlightenment), and to be a premium educational resource for cooking word of mouth into the DNA of an organization.
We believe SWOM might be ideal for change agents inside organizations who are working hard to incorporate word of mouth into products or operations, as well as educators, account managers, consultants and creative directors who are looking for research or peer support in helping students or clients understand that word of mouth can be more than a series of tactics.
SWOM is a bottom-up effort to make word of mouth more than just a form of marketing, but to build it into a belief system. To create a world of -- forgive us -- word-of-mouth Swomies.
The social network is available now; in the weeks and months ahead, we'll introduce webinars, educational materials and training opportunities. Plus, we'll host in-person events that we think will be pretty fun.
We hope that you will help us build a community of Swomies who support and help each other with their businesses. Take a look, sign up and tell us what you think.
A quick reminder, too: Jackie and I will be hanging out at SXSW for the next few days at some panels and parties. If you're there, say hi.
Other blogs that reference The Society for Word of Mouth:
The site looks terrific, Ben & Jackie! I just signed on and will spread the word. Individual marketers have needed a site like this - thanks for creating it!
Great post. Word of mouth is certainly great but obviously with the internet, it has changed the visible benefit of that to many. Very nice site and we will be interesting in seeing how it works out for you and are definitely curious to sign up ourselves!
I'm a PhD student teaching a class at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and I'm very interested in this and how I can teach undergrads now about where things are going.
I'm currently teaching a marketing research course and I think that WOM is going to be an important, growing element in the marketing research toolkit for the organizations at which these students will want to work. I look forward to the material that will be made available to students through our network of swomis!
Thank you! Can't wait to start perusing.
Wonderful! I have added this post to bizsugar.com . *=)
The new distributed viral forum/blog/wiki/classified/etc viral advertising engine is here. Spread the word about your product or service in short amount of time to millions of people. Get residual traffic and increase search engine visibility by using long lasting backlinks. Low cost, no pay per click fraud issues and great ROI. http://widecircles.com?imt=3
I just started reading Citizen Marketers and I am loving it. I just finished my MBA and will be writing my dissertation about the challenges imposed by the social network for organizations Marketing Strategies. I have bookemarked your blog with del.icio.us and will spread the word about it! BTW, posting from Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Congrats on the great work you two!
Really this is Wonderful.
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Malshi.
Wow, check out this site called http://www.fluc.com
. Free SMS and free mobile ads!! Its fantastic
