I have been to the Marketing 2.0 Conference in Paris earlier this week. Best thing was to meet a lot of people I haven't seen for a long time and to speak with them about their experiences re/ WOM the last few months. But a lot of presentations have been quite - well - optimistic.
I was presenting my POV as well and my Baby Monitor thing. When I listened to most of the first day, I decided to say one sentence louder than I planned, that is part of our philosophy: Word Of Mouth (or Viral) Is An Outcome, Not A Strategy. My feeling was, that a lot of people talk about WOM and e.g. viral video like a new channel, even a media channel, that can be booked and planned and "played".
But is this true? Is it really about channels? Like TV, magazines, dailies aso? Can you just "buy" your portion of Word Of Mouth? And - if you can - should you?
A friend from Germany always says, you just need to build a really good product and you will get word of mouth. For all the others you need advertising.
My point at this conference was more about why it matters (for brands or companies) to get "social" - and what is in for them on this way. So I put up some examples as well. I think, if you don't look at social media as just another channel but as the possibility to establish a real dialogue, you will definitly find ways to act. There is so much out there in the space that you will have your niche or place or room.
Here are my slides btw:
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