CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwire - May 7, 2012) - The Word of Mouth Marketing Association's (WOMMA) WOMM-U 2012 conference begins today at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel in Chicago. WOMM-U is the official conference for the word of mouth marketing industry, focusing on creating talkable and sharable content as well as the best practices in word of mouth and social media marketing.
Keynotes and Agenda Highlights
Keynote: Steve Knox, senior advisor at the Boston Consulting Group, will kick off the conference by focusing on key principles that cause consumers to recommend a brand to one another. In this opening keynote, Knox will detail the concrete steps needed to bring advocacy alive within your brand.
Speed WOMM: Coming back for a second straight year, the speed networking session will give registrants a one-on-one opportunity to discuss current industry topics, gather best practices and receive valuable insights from their fellow attendees.
Ed Keller and Brad Fay: In anticipation of their new "The Face-To-Face Book," Keller, CEO, and Fay, COO, of the Keller Fay Group will discuss how real relationships and offline word of mouth, despite the rise of social media platforms, is still the premiere form of brand advocacy. Sponsoring their session, House Party will be distributing free copies of the new book, two weeks before the official release date.
Keynote Luncheon: Chicago's legendary Second City will stop by on Tuesday, May 8 for a comedic session on content development and reaching an audience.
Keynote: Paul Adams, global brand experience manager at Facebook, will discuss the latest research on influence and social behavior. Adams will share how people are connected and how ideas and brand messages spread through social networks.
Keynote: Kristina Halvorson, CEO and founder of Brain Traffic, will close out WOMM-U 2012 by guiding all attendees on how to take all they have learned from WOMM-U and create a framework for how to synchronize content through their products, people and processes.
2012 WOMMY Awards: WOMMA will officially open registration for the 2012 WOMMY awards at WOMM-U on Wednesday, May 9. This year's awards will be divided into seven categories: Introduction Award, Momentum Award, Custom Relationship Management (CRM) Award (new), Social Media Award, Mobile Award (new), Cause Marketing Award (new) and the Measurement Award.
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More WOMM-U News
- Last week, WOMMA announced a strategic partnership with FeedMagnet, providing social display feeds for WOMM-U. As part of the partnership, FeedMagnet has developed a rich and visual experience that will pull in a variety of social media feeds onto large display models at WOMM-U. WOMMA previously partnered with FeedMagnet at its annual fall conference, Summit, last November. During the conference, FeedMagnet's custom designed screen displays were fixtures in the hallways at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and on stage between speakers. As a result, social content poured in from participants and speakers. All in all, FeedMagnet and WOMMA gathered over 22,400 social mentions, 21,000 status updates, 600 photos and 228 checkins via Foursquare.
- WOMMA is giving marketers a new way to get all the latest social marketing news via mobile. WOMMA's free mobile app launches today and will provide marketers with the first singular source for comprehensive word of mouth marketing news. The app, which was developed in partnership with full-service social media agency Banyan Branch, is now available for download on iPhone, iPad and Android mobile devices.
About WOMMA
WOMMA, www.womma.org, is the leading trade association in the marketing and advertising industries that focuses on word of mouth, consumer-generated and social media platforms -- or marketing techniques that include buzz, viral, community, and influencer marketing, as well as brand blogging. The organization is committed to developing and maintaining appropriate ethical standards for marketers and advertisers engaging in such marketing practices, identifying meaningful measurement standards for such marketing practices, and defining "best practices" for the industry.
Founded in 2004, WOMMA members include marketers and brands that use word of mouth marketing to reinforce their core customers and to reach out to new consumers, agencies that deliver word of mouth services and technologies, researchers that track the word of mouth experience and offline and online practitioners.