I'm blogging from the Word of Mouth conference at the Dental Institute (geddit?) in london. Two great presentations from my boss Andy Green and Mark Borkowski. Mark made an interesting point about how we identify where wom messages come from. Well, online wom offers a near perfect solution doesn't it?
Unlike traditional wom which works like chinese whispers, wom in the online space works in a written format. Once the meme or message is commited to a blog then it starts to spread through the internet through links.
What this means is that tracking online wom becomes possible, even down to the point of identifying where the messsage originated. A further benefit is whereas the chinese whisper effect is relatively unchecked in a verbal medium, online monitoring means if you discover an erroneous post you can join in and correct it.
One cautionary note however came from this morning's chair, Steve Barton, who used some stats showing that as at 2006 online wom made up a mere 1% of wom communication. Still this will surely increase..... won't it?
I have posted the gags that I took out of my speech. If you are interested?
Posted by: Borkowski | December 01, 2006 at 05:07 PM
Hey, great new site I have just caught up with. I must change my link.
Posted by: Ellee Seymour | December 01, 2006 at 06:32 PM
I was interested to hear though, that influencers are far more likely to use the web than followers. Even though the WoM may take place offline, the information may come from blogs and other online sources.
Posted by: Ian Delaney | December 01, 2006 at 06:33 PM
I spoke to Andy earlier and he said the conference was a great success. Hi praise for Simon too on his presentation on Web 2.0 and social marketing. I think the plan now is to take it on tour...
Posted by: IanJGreen | December 01, 2006 at 07:45 PM
@Mark, I didn't know there were going to be gags! I'll have a look...
@Ellee, where have you been...? I had the decorators in in August!
@Ian D, Good point... I suppose I fell foul of thinking about off and online wom as separate entities rather than part of the same practice.
@IanG, The phrase "Web 2.0" didn't even cross my lips... ;)
Posted by: Simon Collister | December 02, 2006 at 12:15 PM