WOMMA Gathering as Mirror Into Evolving Conversational Map

Last week I found myself "rejuvenated, refreshed, and reinvigorated" after attending a quarterly board meeting of the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) -- so much so that I dedicated this morning's ClickZ Column ("Passionate Faces in the Conversational Crowd") to my post-meeting observations.  It's wasn't just WOMMA, per se, but the issues and themes we tackled, and the diverse medley of stakeholders who discussed and debated them.  Importantly, word-of-mouth continues to evolve in powerful new ways, enabled by new technology, social networks, and of course deeper consumer experience (and practice...and repetition) in expressing oneself.  Because WOM touches so many diverse stakeholders (marketing, PR, research, advertising, interactive marketing, external relations, various agencies and measurement firms), it's beginning to soften organizational silos, drive greater cross-platform integration in marketing campaigns, recalibrate the nature and definition of an "agency,"  put long-overdue focus on operational issues like customer service, and open up windows into new ad models (many good, some bad).

Wikipedia Extends the Definition:  And even right before our eyes, we're seeing a powerful new definition of WOM emerge in Wikipedia, now inclusive of "text messages sent via SMS and web dialogue, such as online profile pages, blog posts, message board threads, instant messages and emails."  Some prefer the term "conversation."  Others prefer "social media."  I tend to focus on the online trail of consumer-generated media. But at the end of the day, we're talking about offshoots and line-extensions of word-of-mouth. Consumers are talking, offering opinions, making recommendations, solidifying their voice through the concurrence and reinforcement of others -- and using every available tool at their disposal to get their point across.  Brave new world!  We'll tackle much more of this at next WOMMA summit in Las Vegas November 14-15.  Again, here's the article in ClickZ.