
At Ford, Scott heads up the social media function and holds the title Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager. He is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company, from blogger relations to marketing support, customer service to internal communications and more, as social media is being integrated into many facets of Ford business.

Prior to joining Ford, Scott served as Consigliere for crayon and spent a number of years with PJA Advertising + Marketing, a boutique BtoB agency specializing in health sciences & high tech.
In addition to his professional responsibilities, Scott is an active blogger and podcaster. He writes about the intersection of advertising, marketing and PR at The Social Media Marketing Blog and also writes The Baker Street Blog and cohosts I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, two literary undertakings. Scott has been featured in hundreds of news and business publications in print and on the web, in nearly dozens of books, and on a variety of mainstream media, including NBC, NPR, CNN and The Wall Street Journal. Scott is a recognized thought leader in the social media industry and frequently speaks at industry events.
Scott received his Master's in Medical Science from Boston University's School of Medicine concurrently with his MBA from BU's Graduate School of Management. He lives in the greater Detroit area with his wife and two young sons, golfs all too infrequently, and has a hidden talent for voice over work.
Oh, and one last little-known fact: Scott coined the Oxford Dictionary of English-accepted term "tweetup."
You may download a headshot here, courtesy of Rosh Sillars; a PDF version of Scott's bio is here .
Scott speaks on social media at events, seminars and conferences around the world. His topic generally focuses on corporate use of social media, becoming an online spokesperson, and specifically on the progress that Ford has made in the recent past. If you're interested in booking Scott to speak at your event, please click here to submit a speaking request for Ford-related purposes or email me at speaking [AT] this site's URL (if you know what I mean) to send a general email request.. Scott's bio and headshot can be found in the "About Scott" tab above.
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Not sure how Swear Jar could be WOM. It *stimulated* word of mouth, but it is in fact a viral video (or more precisely, a tv-style commercial that went viral, since we all know that companies make the videos but consumers make them viral.)
WOM is about person-to-person (whether it's about trying and buying or not, whether it is stimulated by a company or not). Viral marketing is a conscious effort by a company to make word of mouth happen.
That's my take.
Maybe I'm over-simplifying but I've always said that WOM is about enabling people to recommend things to their friends and family. The strongest kind of WOM is a one-to-one recommendation but when you're recommending something to more than one person it's viral. Hence, sending a funny branded video to five of your best friends is viral. Saying "I love Budweiser, did you see the swear jar video?" to your friend is a one-to-one recommendation. Both are WOM but only one is viral.
That's my take anyway.
I think you have something in trying to delineate between these two terms on the basis of how personal their technique for spreading is, but I believe the distinction might break down at some point.
Word of Mouth is built as an expression upon an oral tradition, which is, as you say, person to person, but it still may spread exponentially (I always think of the commercial for that hair product: "and she'll tell two friends, and so on, and so on"). Whereas the unfortunately termed "viral" is based upon a notion such as represents the distribution of disease, like colds, flu & etc. - which can certainly tend to be more impersonal and indirect (although not necessarily, and may certainly occur one person at a time).
I think the value of this debate lies not in wrestling with how distinct we might make these terms, but with getting a better grip on these two approaches in relationship to agency (i.e. as deliberate tactics to deploy).
WOM, Viral, Buzz... It's all so played out. Marketing "Buzz" words should follow the same lifecycle as fashion. New ones should come out every season.
I prefer sticky video over viral video. And ideas that "pop"...The word "inject" has also been popping into my head. Like injecting your brand into a community. Community, that's another one I feel I say about a million times a day. Its a good one but we should find something new. How about, "Facebook is the ideal commune to raise awareness of your brand," or, "How can we leverage the Twitterhood". Facebookhood...Nah doesn't work as well.
What new words can we come up with? Let's hold a contest!
Hi,
I would say viral marketing is a digitally enhanced form of word of mouth. With digital forms of communication, you can avoid the limits of time and space. I can send a message from Stockholm, Sweden, to ten friends in São Paolo - Brazil, London - UK and 8 other different cities in a matter of seconds. There is no way I could interact with the same people in that amount of time if I did it person to person.
Now, viral and word of mouth are often differentiated by their intent, but that doesn't have to be. Word of mouth stories do get viral spread on the Internet for example, and viral techniques can be used to enhance spread of more traditional word of mouth. Also, viral attempts can be designed with a call to action to actually drive sales.
Buzz to me isn't as much about the product/service, but rather some stunt created to get attention and generate publicity. Less call to action. Mostly done offline, but with potential to spill over online.
I happen to think it doesn't matter if it's viral or WOM. The audience will tell us. What people respond to is great creative and this invariably is based on a good story. Different audiences will be engaged by different stories. Our challenge as marketers is to find something that people are willing to share with their friends. Viral or WOM is the power of the story. Nobody knows what the magic is.
Has anyone out there heard about WideCircles.com. It seems like a way better service then wasting money on PPC. Apparently they are using refering websites ( forums, blogs, wiki, etc. ) and have a viral word of mouth distributed approach to it. My friend told me he got around 100 visits from single post which cost him $0.40c. I am going to give them a try today . In case you are intrested here is it. http://widecircles.com?s=imt1
The strongest kind of WOM is a one-to-one recommendation but when you're recommending something to more than one person it's viral.
_________
DILSHI
Social Media Marketing
This is a tangent, but am I the only one who noticed that the advert doesn't say a d@#n thing about the brand it's supposed to be about.
Don't you think that in the effort to produce something people will want to take viral, some very basic brand management corners are being cut?