The WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) folks released yesterday what they’re calling a new set of standards to measure the impact – and ROI – of word-of-mouth marketing. Download WOMMA’s 12-page PDF here. It explains measurement terms and methodology – including the WOMUnit, the “single unit” of information that is passed from one consumer to another.
Tomorrow is WOMMA’s first Measuring Word of Mouth Conference in Chicago chaired by the irrepressible Andy Sernovitz.
I’m intrigued by the efforts to put a structure and labels around what is a free flowing phenomenon. It should help corporate marketers get their arms around the impact of blogs; namely, to act as enablers for word of mouth marketing. WOMMA’s new guidelines call blogs “a venue” for WOMM. Other venues are the water cooler at work, an email, a rock concert, a trade show, a civic meeting, etc.