WOM Meme - Innovation
February 18th, 2009
Okay, so my SocialFish buddy Maddie Grant tagged me in the WOM Meme last week. Even though, I’m not really a guy for memes, I thought I’d play along. So here is what I’ve been asked to do:
Please do a short blog post with an example of how you’ve seen WOM used in your work. Then tag a couple of [association/non-profit] people to do the same.
I’m not sure if Maddie meant the phrase “in my work” literally or in the realm of innovation more broadly. I’ve decided to go with the latter.
Besides my view that WOM is a marketing innovation in its own right, I think the most powerful example of WOM and innovation is the rapid rise and growth of Google. I can remember when Google was still residing on the Stanford University servers at the google.stanford.edu URL. Even at that time, people were saying how much better it was than Yahoo or any other search engine. It did not take long for Google to totally dominate Web search, and I think it’s pretty clear why that happened:
1. Google offered a better product.
2. Google embraced innovation.
2. Word got around.
Unlike many other tech start-ups in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Google didn’t spend its money on a clever Super Bowl commercial to attract an audience. In fact, over its entire 10+ year existence, Google hasn’t very spent very much at all on marketing and advertising for its own products, which is certainly ironic considering just how much of the company’s revenues come from the advertising of others. The powerful word of mouth around Google’s innovation rendered such expenditures unnecessary. I mean, come on, Google, googled and googling are all in the dictionary!
As much as it pains me to do so, I will tag a couple of people to keep this meme going. If it wasn’t a WOM meme, I probably wouldn’t.
Ann Oliveri, Kristi Graves Donovan and Zach Wilson
Entry Filed under: Principled Innovation Blog, What's New?, Social Media, Innovation, Associations, Extreme Makeover, The Association Innovator, Simplicity, We Have Always Done It That Way, Google, Garage Memes, Embrace the Revolution
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