« Brilliant Online Show: EpicFU | Main | Word of Mouth Measurement: Critical in a Recession »

October 27, 2008

Working With WOM Influencers

Last month, WOMMA quietly released their Influencer Handbook which offers guidelines on best practices and ethics for engaging influencers - online and offline - in WOM programs. A council of members put the handbook together. This is one of several useful initiatives that WOMMA members are spearheading right now.

Bloggers vs. Influencers

The Handbook starts at one level higher and more abstract than most approaches who focus in on the subset of influencers who are bloggers. Our own Blogger Outreach Guidelines and even WOMMA's Ethical Blogger Contact Guidlines start a little further down the chain. The Influencer Handbook frames out an approach appropriate for all types of influencers. They even inventory influencers in the following grid:

Category Who they are Channels of Influence

What they are called (Partial list)

Formal position of authority Political/government leaders/staff Business leaders Laws & regulations
Decision & spending authority
Top-down directives
Opinion Leaders
Decision makers
C-suite
Institutional/recognized
subject matter experts & advocates
Academics/scientists
Industry analysts
NGO leaders
Consumer activists
Academic journals
Traditional media
New media
Social media
Experts
Mavens
Analysts
Critics
Media elite Journalists
Commentators
Talk show hosts
Traditional media
New media
Social media
Talking heads
Columnists
Politicos
Cultural elite Celebrities
Designers
Artists
Musicians
Traditional media
New media
New styles/products
Social media
Trendsetters
Fashionistas
Taste makers
Creators
Starters
Socially connected Neighborhood leaders
Members of community groups Online networkers
Business networkers
Personal relationships
Email lists
Social gatherings
Social networking websites
Social media
Mavens
Starters
Connectors
Soccer moms
Spreaders
Hubs
Alphas

The Handbook offers safe guidelines for marketers who want to engage Influencers and need to make sure they do so ethically and without putting their brand at risk. Everyday, I hear about marketers not in WOMMA who are new to word of mouth and stumble around the grey areas of ethics that, quite frankly, just aren't that grey. I serve on the WOMMA board and am passionate about the mission of the organization. I hate seeing good brands being led into risky territory by naive marketers who don't see the problems in pretending to be someone they are not online, or going overboard to push an influencer to write a blog post, or who just don't respect the new influencers online (remember the David Ogilvy dictum: "The consumer is not a moron; she is your wife")

Protect Your Brand

The new Influencer Handbook is useful to all marketers. Many who have been around WOMMA may find it almost common sense - that's a good thing and speaks to our collective efforts over the past few years. It is full of useful guidance like this:

"• Consider engagement as a balance sheet. The relative benefits to you, the brand, and the influencers needs to be in balance with one another. If the balance is too much in your favor, your influencers will feel used and you’ll ultimately alienate passionate users. If the balance is too much in the favor of your influencers, you’ll lose interest over time, and your program will be a campaign instead of a multi-year, long-term commitment.

• Influencer programs are, by definition, long-term, multi-year commitments designed to build a relationship; they are not marketing campaigns. Campaigns can augment influencer efforts to help find, activate, or engage influencers in particular activities (like a product launch), but influencer programs need to level out the roller coaster of connections provided by campaigns."

Protect your brand. Practice great word of mouth. Get this useful guide from those who are actually practicing great word fo mouth marketing everday.

(Oh, and come to the WOMMA Summit on November 12-14 to get more practical tools and apporaches for impactful womm including the latest on measuring and reporting ROI - handy in a "challenged" economy) 

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341cb26653ef010535c0c23f970c

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Working With WOM Influencers:

Comments

John,

Thanks so much for covering WOMMA's latest ethics tools for marketers piece. WOMMA appreciates your support.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Twitter Updates

    follow me on Twitter

    Site Search


    Cred

    Blog powered by TypePad

    About Me

      • About Me

    Your email address:


    Powered by FeedBlitz

    Speaking