Thursday 10 July 2008

IWOM in China - follow up to "China's Blogging War"

In a recent post I covered the corporate battle against bloggers in China and how MNCs will pay PR companies to "seed" good news stories and to cover up negative stories.

Sam Flemming over at CIC blogs writes more on the topic of IWOM. I admit this is the first time I have come across "Internet Word of Mouth" and the acronym IWOM.

Recommended reading. CIC are clearly involved in this arena but are pleading innocence. This quote also introduces to me the WOMMA - another fine association I am sure. Given CIC work with clients such as Nike, Pepsi and L’Oreal it is worth taking a moment to get the "marketeers" take on the Business Week article.

CIC does not seed messages for clients: As I wrote in January, CIC is a member of The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), and we follow WOMMA's code of ethics, which, in short says:
* Honesty of Relationship: You say who you're speaking for
* Honesty of Opinion: You say what you believe
* Honesty of Identity: You never obscure your identity


The other phrase I like is "efluencers". I need to come down from my ivory tower every once in a while.

CIC uses its technology and deep understanding of online community to identify bloggers and efluencers who would have the most interest in developing a meaningful relationship with our clients


I have always wondered how one qualifies as an "efluencer". Perhaps if I start a campaign against or for one of CICs clients and their working practices in China I will get tapped up. Nike strike me as a gold mine of news worthy economic comment related to wages, conditions and other working practices.

The article also includes links for follow up research. Interesting stuff.

Thoughts on recent Business Week article on IWOM in China [CIC blog]

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