PR agencies spend so much time talking about PR 2.0, bloggers, online media, social media and the like, as marketers we forget that we live in the real world, too. And often, what we do in the real world is the very fire that fuels success in online marketing and spurs word-of-mouth across it all.
To this end, I overheard a conversation at lunch where two marketing execs were talking about what they could do to drive Word of Mouth. Aside from the fact that they shouldn’t talk about plans in an Au Bon Pain, it was clear that these guys were confused on some of the basic tools, such as guerilla marketing, publicity stunts and grassroots programs. The terms were jumbled together in a mashup of craziness and swag, seemingly with very little direction. Never mind they seemed to be clueless how to translate their ideas to online or social media marketing.
For what it’s worth, I thought I’d take a shot at providing some context to the conversation. Hey, I may be completely full of s**t; talk to 50 marketers and you may get 50 different definitions for these same words. But defining these tactical kissing cousins is the key to having a good reference point to begin a plan.