A Word on WoM Metrics

        For instance, for this fictional brand, of the voluntary buyers, most fall in the positive, but non-influential zone. Let’s start looking why this is the case – are they a bit ashamed of their association with the brand? Does it just happen that the psychographic profile of our typical buyer is that of a shy person that is reluctant to speak out about his preferences? Once we know these things, we can look into remedies – enhance pride of ownership, or motivate the shy to speak up.

        In this same example, of the involuntary non-buyers, many turn out to be positive influentials, i.e. even though for some reason they can’t actually buy our brand, they are our biggest fans. So we need to work with them, give them storytelling tools, invite them into our family instead of disregarding them and mistreating them because they don’t fit the actual buyer profile.

Here I also come back to my little setup in my previous article. – by taking the Relevance, Reputation and Attention of a person into account, I get a better feeling for whom I want to focus my attention on.

        And now that we have thought of all these different ways of looking at WoM and influentials, I’m going to add the final insult. The one thing we really can’t measure, and which also undermines such useful metrics as NPS (which I am a fan off for the current lack of anything better) is our tendency, if not to say talent, to adapt our stories and recommendations to the listener. In other words, when I talk to my father about phones, I will promote a completely different brand then when talking to my brother – as I know they have different requirements, preferences and abilities.  So I am at the same time a promoter for Nokia and for HTC.  I might even stay a promoter TOWARDS my father of Nokia while having a troubled relationship with the brand myself (which I don’t, just giving an example, dear Nokia social marketing department). So if I were asked to give my NPS score on Nokia, I might give a negative score – while at the same time actively promoting the brand. Confusing? That’s humanity for you.

Whoever manages to solve this metric deserves the Nobel Prize in Marketing. Obviously only the year after mine….

        And now, coming full circle to the start of my argument – as long as we realize that we don’t really know what to measure yet, let alone HOW to measure it, we can start thinking in new ways. The search for new models and metrics will go on for a while, but in the meantime, let’s work with what we have. Let’s focus on identifying our most likely influentials, and how to reach them. And let’s not get blinded by the question whether we are reaching 22% or 25% of the population. Maybe it’s 25 people we need to reach, not 25%.