WOMMA Ain't Your MOMMA's Marketing...
It's actually an acronym for Word of Mouth Marketing Association. I'm in a "WOM Statistics" breakout session as we speak, and the guy behind the mic is Howard Kaushansky of Umbria. He's sharing how Burger King is really making some noise in the media by extending their Subservient Chicken campaign to a motorcycle rider (sorry, no link. Oh, I'm wrong, here it is: Huckin Chicken). Add to that the Coq Roq gig they're doing on MySpace.com, and you have a number of elements playing together to help collect and generate buzz. Take a gander and please feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts on this.
So, what does this have to do with PR? Lots.
With the ability to create social dialogue with press releases, you have the heart of a viral program that you can jump-start right here. Why and how?
The why should be obvious to you, but if not, here's a clue: Momentum.
Momentum, whether in your product, company or brand, is one of the greatest challenges we all face. Getting and maintaining momentum is key to a long, profitable life for your business (a good friend and business coach always told me: "Inflow=Outflow". He is spot-on, and his $170,000,000 in annual sales is proof of that as well). Momentum provides a wave of success. If you can successfully develop momentum, eventually you'll find you're no longer working IN your business, but ON your business (see Michael Gerber for more on that).
The how? Become a source of buzz. And don't passively wait for that buzz to get distributed by luck. Put your story, your buzz, on a proactive buzz engine (I wholeheartedly endorse PRWeb's multiple content distribution sources to make this happen. Do a release, add Trackbacks, put some images on PRWebPhotowire, add RSS feeds to your site, blog back to your press releases, publish NewsPad search results, etc...). If you connect it all together (link between releases using RSS, add links from PRWebPhotowire to your release, make a Press Page on your web site and add the release link to that page, do a trackback from your blog to your release, etc...). The cumulative response can be substantial, I assure you. (Need proof? Just let me know and I'll send you some end-to-end process results we've achieved for a few of my personal clients using these tools).
So: Start the buzz, and watch WOM take off, empowering you and taking your business to places you might otherwise have never known existed.
OK, I gotta' go make some new friends here.
It was good seeing you guys at WOMMA, and give my best to the coworkers left in Washington.
Posted by: Jeremy Pepper | June 28, 2006 at 11:08 PM
Ok Dave, I'm biting.
Can I get your examples of success using WoM marketing and press releases?
Better yet, can I read it and interview you on it? I want to tell affiliates about how this could help them.
Best
Janet
newspapergrl.wordpress.com
Posted by: grocerybike | July 22, 2006 at 08:22 AM