The Word of Mouth Marketing Association is getting ready for a research conference followed by a two-day summit from November 13th through November 15th. This year’s event is heavily focused on the burning issues of the industry. Here are a few highlights from the various topics experts will discuss:

- How companies can leverage social networks without getting a backlash from consumers
- Influencers or networks: Which matters more?
- Who should own word of mouth in the marketing communication mix?
- How to measure the ROI on word of mouth
- How to spark and sustain conversations

The choice of topics, as compared to previous years’ conferences, signals to the progression of the industry. Word of mouth is becoming a line item in marketing budgets and media plans based on solid measurement. It is evolving as a science where many companies are becoming more and more sophisticated at identifying those who generate buzz and understanding the conditions permissible to brewing word of mouth (e.g., types of networks, social context, and quality of messages.).

In the first Word of Mouth Marketing conference I had attended, I had taken fierce notes from many presentations. Yet one speaker in particular stuck in my mind, as he said ‘Everything generates word of mouth.’ He meant all forms of marketing – PR, advertising, grassroots, online, traditional media – contribute to our daily conversations about products and services. Maybe so, but now we are at a point where consumers put so much trust and value in word of mouth, we need to understand it not just as a social phenomenon but also as a marketing science.