Do you ever find yourself talking to someone about your company outside the office on multiple occasions? In reality, every employee is a member of the marketing department and should take this role very seriously, especially in today’s current climate of “shameless plugs”.  As opposed to the traditional act of defining the four P’s of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion) direct mail ads, and email blasts, word of mouth marketing has become a new age phenomena over the past few years. Whether you are at the doctor’s office waiting room or in line at the grocery store, any time is a good time for marketing your company. WOMMA would probably agree. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association which houses members such as the Walt Disney Company and General Mills provides ethical and professional word of mouth tools to formalize and make the world of word of mouth marketing a whole lot better. WOMMA offers its multiple members with tips and tools to better their word of mouth skills, and in the end market their company in a more professional way. They define their five basic elements as “Educating people about your products and services, identifying people most likely to share their opinions, providing tools that make it easier to share information, studying how, where, and when opinions are being shared, and by listening and responding to supporters, detractors, and neutrals.” Without even being a member everyone in the workplace can learn from these simple tactics. There are many different types of word of mouth marketing according to WOMMA, including evangelist marketing, cause marketing, viral marketing, and viral marketing. It even includes blogging as a form of word of mouth marketing! Even outside of human resources where people and customer service are your specialty, anyone can follow these principles. So the next time someone’s asks you to explain what you do for a living, don’t be embarrassed to make your marketing department proud, and speak up in a more creative and professional way about your company. Visit their website at https://www.womma.org/ for more concrete ways on how to put these principles into action.