Society for Word of Mouth

SWOM is for those who seek word of mouth enlightenment.

Members

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Getting started on SWOM

So you've joined SWOM. Now what? Here's four ways to immerse yourself into swomdom:
1. Introduce yourself in the SWOM Lobby
2. Join or start a discussion in the Forum
3. Join one or several specialty groups, which are typically organized by location or topic
4. Invite co-workers or friends to become a swomi, too

Latest Activity

Paul Chaney left a comment for Alex Caldwell 1 hour ago

Ben McConnell started a discussion called Austin Social Media Club in SWOMies in Austin 1 hour ago

Daniel Gardner added the blog post 'I pirated my own DVD' 2 hours ago

Bruce Gerth created 2 new groups. View Groups 2 hours ago

Bruce Gerth's profile changed 2 hours ago

Ben McConnell added the blog post 'Online community growth exploding' 3 hours ago

Warren Whitlock left a comment for Sheila Bocchine 5 hours ago

Joe replied to the discussion How would you build word of mouth for a brand-new carpet-cleaning business? 9 hours ago

Liz left a comment for Alvin 14 hours ago

Liz joined Society for Word of Mouth. Leave a Comment for Liz. 14 hours ago

Sheila Bocchine added the blog post 'how many colors can you name?' 21 hours ago

Brad Bentz commented on the blog post Follow up: Starting a new Carpet cleaning Business 1 day ago

Groups

SWOM Chicago (21 members)
Brand Enthusiasm Experts (19 members)

SWOMies of OC - Online Communties (18 members)
SWOMies in Austin (17 members)

SWOMies in DC (15 members)
SWOMies in the Restaurant Business (14 members)

New England SWOMies (11 members)
Small Town SWOM (11 members)

Edu Swomi (10 members)
SWOM Real Estate (10 members)

Tourism SWOMies (10 members)
Southern SWOMies (8 members)

Art4Life (7 members)
SWOM New York (7 members)

SWOMies of the Southwest (6 members)
SWOM Arizona (6 members)

SWOM PNW (5 members)
Aussie SWOM'ies (5 members)

YouTube SWOMies (5 members)
SWOMies in Finland (4 members)

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Church of the Customer blog

Jargon and marketing maturity

There's an inverse relationship between a company's ability to communicate well and its public use of jargon. Facebook is a good example. Smart people run the company, but their communication with the world is usually pretty awful. From my vantage point at a packed coffee shop in Austin this weekend, Facebook's familiar interface illuminated laptop screens on multiple tables. The...

Mickey Drexler knows me

Does this dress make my hips look big? It was a question for which I needed an honest answer this weekend as I shopped at J. Crew. My salesperson complied. "Yes, it does," she said. She smartly suggested another, more flattering dress instead. Thank you. I appreciated the honest advice. Long-time readers of the Church probably know I love J....

Erebelle update

If you've been reading us for a while, you may know about our work with Erebelle, an Austin-based women's clothing brand that we've invested in. Here's an update. Website. An updated website that positions the brand ("active wear for women") and showcases all of its pieces is nearly finished. To date, Erebelle has been sold only in boutiques and fitness...

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Forum

The SWOM Lobby: Say hello
180 Replies

If you're new, introduce yourself and mingle. You're among friends.

Tagged: newbies, introductions, welcome, say hello

Started by Ben McConnell. Last reply by Jackie Huba May 3.

Books: "Accidental Branding" by David Vinjamuri
46 Replies

David Vinjamuri's new book, "Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands," kicks off SWOM's program to feature discussions of new books that are relevant to word of mouth. ... Continue

Tagged: accidental branding, david vinjamuri, books

Started by Ben McConnell. Last reply by David Vinjamuri May 5.

Viral marketing does not exist
2 Replies

Or does it? Something having gone viral is not a strategy -- it's an outcome of word of mouth. Getting to that outcome involves an ever-changing roster of technologies. The technologies will alwa... Continue

Tagged: viral, marketing

Started by Ben McConnell. Last reply by Maury Giles May 6.

How Do You Measure Results?
13 Replies

I'd really like to know. I almost always measure mine by how many sales were made and how profitable the exercise was. People think I'm obsessed with money, but I'm not. I just find it an inargua... Continue

Started by Mark G. Last reply by DanThornton Apr 3.

Input for SWOM guidelines
7 Replies

When Jackie and I launched SWOM, we did so without established member rules or guidelines. We knew what we wanted SWOM to be, and we had a few ideas of what we didn't want it to become: at the top... Continue

Tagged: guidelines, swom

Started by Ben McConnell. Last reply by Kim Proctor May 6.

Mouthonomics: Actual value of evangelists vs. detractors

As a follow-up to Jackie's CotC blog post on mouthonomics, here's a bit more info about the Satmetrix study "NetPromoter Economics: The impact of word of mouth." Apple's ability to generate custom... Continue

Tagged: netpromoter, evidence, wom

Started by Ben McConnell Mar 27

Free Food?
30 Replies

We have opened an all day cafe (7am til late) in our historic district downtown in Lincoln, NE. We have a very consistent lunch crowd and a decent evening crowd 6 days a week, but very little morni... Continue

Tagged: restaurants, bite size chunks

Started by Kevin & Karen Shinn. Last reply by Tanya May 1.

My question is...
18 Replies

Don't be shy. Ask a question, and get help from fellow SWOMies on the answer.

Tagged: questions, answers, q&a, help

Started by Ben McConnell. Last reply by Dragos Apr 7.

Making SWOM better

Warren, There is a problem with the Ning system that we just found out about this morning. Everyone's profile page is missing their pic and the ability to add friends. We put in a trouble ticket wi... Continue

Tagged: swom, suggestion_box, membership

Added by Jackie Huba Mar 7

Videos

Creature From Jekyll Island - Second Look by G. Edward Griffin Added by Richard
Social Communities and Paid Membership Model Added by Jack Humphrey
How Many Pages Like This Can You Create? Added by Jack Humphrey

Preview of Utility Poster Added by Jack Humphrey
Stop Monkeying Around Added by Jack Humphrey
Nancy Juetten's Do-It-Yourself Publicity Tips Added by Nancy S. Juetten

View Videos

Blog Posts

Viral vs. word of mouth

Martin reports from Internet World in London that a panel of marketers wasn't even close to agreeing on a common definition of viral marketing. First and foremost each member of the panel was asked to try an explain the term viral marketing which resulted in a pretty poor show as Chris Kempt said it didn’t exist. At least Scott Burton came up with “somet… Continue

Posted by Ben McConnell on May 5th, 2008 at 4:34pm — No Comments (Add)

Online community growth exploding

Nearly half of all Internet users in the United States belong to a hobby-oriented social network, a new study has found. Plus, nearly a third belong to an online professional community like SWOM. That's according to USC's Annenberg School and the Center for the Digial Future. Niche social networks will continue to be a more powerful source of word of mouth than the big, Life-magazine social networks like MySpace and Facebook.… Continue

Posted by Ben McConnell on May 9th, 2008 at 11:37am — No Comments (Add)

Do something about all that chatter...

“No question, the industry people are unnerved,” said Rochelle R. Bloom, the president of the Fragrance Foundation, a trade group. “I often get calls from executives pleading, ‘Can’t you do something about all this chatter.’ ” Everyone's a Critic The chatter this fragrance industry exec wants something done about...i… Continue

Posted by Zane Safrit on April 17th, 2008 at 10:00am — 1 Comment (Add)

My Take on Recession-Proofing Your Business

"Recession Proof Your Business" as seen in Relativity Excerpts from Relativity article: "businesses that are bogged down in traditional ways of thinking about advertising and marketing are losing out on the next great gold rush present on the internet today" "those not able to communicate to their marketplace in a rapid and concise manner ... will shrink and lose traction in their marketpl… Continue

Posted by Tim Tracey on April 28th, 2008 at 6:49am — No Comments (Add)

Follow up: Starting a new Carpet cleaning Business

I can’t believe its’ been a month since I asked for your help. Thank you all for your great suggestions! I wanted to give you an update of what we have tried or are going to try and the results to date: Ben McConnell suggested that we should invest in a solid bite-size chunk strategy by doing a couple of things: • Identify our ideal customer: o This took the longest time to do. We have set up the profile but need to figure out how to find these people. • Identify 25-50 people who are jus… Continue

Posted by Joe on April 28th, 2008 at 6:28am — 3 Comments (Add)

My Take: Social Networking Vs. Search

Is Search Dying? From "How Social Networking Could Kill Web Search as We Know It" By Glenn Derene as published on April 16, 2008 in Popular Mechanics Excerpts: "Silicon Valley’s Big Three are fighting over the scraps of the last decade of innovation while there’s a sea change taking place in the way people use the Internet" "with the rise of social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace,… Continue

Posted by Tim Tracey on April 28th, 2008 at 6:52am — No Comments (Add)

I pirated my own DVD

After two years of videomaking, my friend Sarah and I designed a DVD of my videos which I placed on sale at Lulu.com for $8.75. However, I took a rather nontraditional approach with this official DVD. I shared it. First, I made a torrent of the DVD iso file and made it freely available online. This allowed persons all… Continue

Posted by Daniel Gardner on May 9th, 2008 at 12:30pm — No Comments (Add)

J.D. Power buys Umbria

Buzz-monitoring firm Umbria has been snatched up by J.D. Power and Associates. The Umbria name will likely disappear as its technology and consulting services are folded into J.D. Power's offerings. Purchase terms weren't disclosed.

Posted by Ben McConnell on April 3rd, 2008 at 10:55am — No Comments (Add)

Deadline TODAY: Dan Pink book giveaway

REMINDER: We are running a contest this week for SWOMies to win Dan Pink's new book, "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You Will Ever Need." It's the first American business book ever written in manga style, the Japanese comic format. Dan is giving away 5 autographed copies to SWOMies, and here's how you can win: By TODAY Wednesday, April 2, midnight CST, just ensure that every field of your SWO… Continue

Posted by Jackie Huba on April 2nd, 2008 at 3:00pm — 2 Comments (Add)

It's not brain surgery... yet

"Short of somehow being able to have a chip in my brain, I'm not sure how you could know what it was that really got me to make a purchase." -- Bruce Haggerty, director of marketing research at Nestle USA, quoted in the Wall Street Journal Actually, Bruce, I'll bet there's a good chance that you saw, read, or heard, someone talking about that item you purchased.

Posted by Ben McConnell on March 19th, 2008 at 6:30pm — 3 Comments (Add)