Below is a rough translation of an article I wrote for our Chinese blog. It’s a bit of a different style for a different audience, but I thought I would share anyway.

As CIC is in a rapidly evolving industry, I would like to share some of the experiences, conversations and overall thoughts which are shaping the CIC view of IWOM in China. Because our vision, like the industry, is always evolving, I will look to share these thoughts once a month.

Recently, I have been reading an insightful book by Clay Shirky called Here Comes Everybody which reinforces CIC’s belief that “The Internet is the Community,” a concept we have been using in CIC for years. The concept is reflected in our definition of IWOM here, originally published in 2007, which identifies both brands and consumers as “netizens” on “equal” terms. Throughout the last month I have been further shaping my ideas on this concept through my interactions with CIC staff and industry professionals.

I have had the opportunity to speak at a number of interesting events over the past month (see here for list), including the OpenWebAsia conference in Korea last week, the Economist Roundtable Conference on Branding in Beijing (see here for more) and the Youth Marketing Forum in Singapore. At the Youth Marketing Forum in Singapore I spoke with IWOM practitioners from around the region who reminded me that “community” is more than just “PR marketing” (i.e. invite your fans to talk about you), but in fact can be used for collaboration with your consumers. When I had lunch in Beijing with David Churbuck, global digital director for Lenovo based in the US who is perhaps the most experienced and down to earth IWOM practitioner in the world, he gave me very real world, practical examples of how Lenovo is using IWOM to help with customer service.

After sharing my latest ideas with our client service team during their sales & communication training, and getting their feedback, I fleshed out this concept in my latest Imediaconnection article here.

…brands, as corporate netizens (similar to corporate citizens), bear the responsibility of being a “good” corporate netizen. Brands must bring value to consumers within communities, not simply “message” or send messages to consumers. By being a “good” corporate netizen, and real contact, brands have the opportunity to redefine relationships with consumers and reap previously unforeseen rewards.

Of course, being a “good corporate” netizen means being transparent in all communications within the community. At CIC, we do not do any message seeding (“枪手”) of any kind, nor do we think it is effective. Earlier this year, by becoming a member of the leading industry group Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), we pledged to never do message seeding. I expanded on this recently in an interview for Digital Media magazine here.

We believe that as a “third party,” we can use our patent pending text mining technology to provide a systematic, objective and strategic view of the buzz in an environment where IWOM is redefining the relationship between brands and consumers (again, my article on this here). Our analysts can “make sense of the buzz” by offering specific suggestions on how brands can participate in the community. Another of my articles on Imediaconnection shows alternatives to seeding with successful examples of companies like Intel and Johnson Baby making real connections within community.

While traveling and networking does keep me away from my family and from my team at CIC, I do see that such exposure is essential to keep in touch with what’s happening both in China and the rest of the world in terms of IWOM so that we can localize and apply the best practices in China. I am looking forward to attending WOMMA’s Word of Mouth Marketing Summit and Research Symposium in Las Vegas this November which will give me the opportunity to meet WOM marketing professionals from around the world and gain an international perspective on these issues. I will also be doing our 2nd annual IWOM summit (see article on the first one here) with leading brands and agencies all over China to encourage practical application of these ideas. More learning to come…