Words, words, words
By Molly FlattWhat does word of mouth mean to you?
Huh?
The word of mouth industry suffers from semantic confusion, big time. Every niche agency and newly created ’social’ department is trying to coin the language that will become the standard lexicon for WOM. The number of buzzwords floating around can create an unfortunate impression that word of mouth is all smoke and mirrors, hoodwinking brands into paying up with warm but distinctly fuzzy sounding concepts.
Language has always been important to us, not in a precious way, but because we like to be very clear about what we do. We do insist that we are called a ‘word of mouth’ and not a ’social media’ company because we’re all about people, having conversations, in the world. That world we all live in includes both social media and the school gates. We don’t believe conversation is most often inspired by or restricted to the digital world, nor are many people most vocal online. Yes, we use new technologies in everything we do to listen to people, find out what they want, amplify their conversation and give it a long and healthy life, but we see the bigger picture.
People. Conversation. Leading to action for brands. Call it what you like, but don’t try and cram WOM into a digital corner.
