Book: What's in a Name?

We call it Digital Word of Mouth marketing.

But DWOM as it's commonly abbreviated hasn't always been what we call this form of marketing.

In it's earliest form it was known as "Viral Marketing." Trading on the concept that if you tell someone, they'll tell someone else thus spreading your message virally. "Grassroots Marketing" was also one of the early terms associated with this form of marketing; taking a page out of the political term associated with getting a message spread through non-conventional methods.

Over the past few years, depending on the room you're in, you've probably heard it referred to as "Interactive Marketing" or "Digital Marketing." But those terms have become extremely broad and recently expanded to include digital advertising and creative website building.

More recently it has been referred to as "Social Media Marketing" or "Conversational Marketing" or even "Engagement Marketing." We've even heard it referred to as simply "Social Networking."

Whatever you call it, whether it's:

• Viral Marketing
• Engagement Marketing
• Grassroots Marketing
• Conversational Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Social Networking
• Interactive Marketing
• Digital Marketing
  
• Online Marketing
• Seeding
• Emerging Media
• New Media

It's all the same.

For the purposes of this book, we'll call it Digital Word of Mouth. It will probably take on a new name at some point after this book has been finished. We'll tackle that problem when we get there.