Social Media Marketing and the Advancement of Word-of-Mouth

I felt bad this morning because I didn’t spend time on a comment. Shoot. So here it goes.

Mark Juleen had left an excellent question on my post: Controlling Word of Mouth Marketing Using Social Media and I hadn’t spent the time to TRULY reply to his question. Here is his question:

Kyle,

I like to think that WOM and Social Media are one and the same. As I have dived into social media over the past few months I’ve come to realize that from a marketing perspective social media marketing is basically just an evolution of WOM. While there can be good old interruption “marketing” with banner ads and such on blogs, facebook, etc., what we’re seeing with users leaving reviews on Yelp!, becoming a fan of a product on Facebook, or blogging about their best or worst experiences with a brand or product is the evolution of WOM.

Now more than ever companies need to focus on WOM marketing in my opinion. This includes social media and the conversations about your brand online.

Thanks for sharing Kyle. Enjoy your day.

Mj

It made sense to me the first time I read the comment. Once I had read it over a couple of times I realized that it was a little deeper than what I expected.

I had been separating the two marketing philosophies as two different instances. In reality, social media is just a regeneration of word-of-mouth marketing (or at least it is quickly moving that way). So… when Mark says, “I’ve come to realize that from a marketing perspective social media marketing is basically just an evolution of WOM,” I do completely agree with him.

Social Media and the Internet have completely changed the way marketing is approached. You now have to KNOW your customer. You have to connect on a deeper level with your customer.

What do you think? Is Social Media just another form of Word-of-Mouth advancement? Is Social Media just the tool for other marketing philosophies to use?