Letter: Talk is cheap, but priceless
Marketing
19/11/2008
Digital's strength as a word of mouth (WOM) platform is indisputable, but for Andrew Walmsley to claim it is the 'greatest strength' (Marketing, 4 November) is limited. As WOM grows, the need to harness its power into meaningfulness results for brands also grows.
This is a difficult trade-off. Although WOM has clear benefits when return on investment is considered, it also involves letting go of the comfort of established measures of success.
Having X number of conversations and X number of friends, for example, doesn't mean much to clients if the objective is to drive cost efficient conversion volumes. Social media can provide logically connected results, as in the case of e-commerce, but there is still a quandary on how to determine if it really helps a brand.
Which makes one think that the beauty of digital, and, indeed, its true strength, lies not just in its current transformational into a revolutionary conversational space, but its ability to evolve to make sense of all the innovation it has helped to create.
Jamie Brown, Head of Search, Profero, London NW1
Read Andrew Walmsley's column: Talk is cheap, but priceless
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