I’ll admit it. In an earlier incarnation in e-retail, I was fairly skeptical about what is sometimes called “consumer generated content.” Back then, we called them customer reviews. Circa 2002 or so, I had plenty of company. Put simply, the rationale was: why would you give your customers free rein to say whatever they wanted about your products or your brand on your site?

I’m chagrined at how naïve that rationale sounds today. The idea that retailers can in any way control what their customers say about them—whether they invite them to have their say on the company’s website or not—is preposterous. And given the number of attendees who flocked to this week’s WOMMA summit, it seems that a lot of retailers (and the ad agencies that work for them) have wised up.

If you’re interested in reading more about this event, the WOMMA site has pretty complete posts about it in its blog. Rather than rewrite what has already been written, I’d like to just highlight a couple of thoughts for the Shop.org membership:

• Anil Dash (Movable Type Professional Network, Six Apart) and Ice.com’s Pinny Gniwisch gave the audience some tips on how to get your company’s blog going. One interesting suggestion: don’t put it in marketing! Rather, find someone who is passionate about what your company does and what your brand stands for. It could be the receptionist; it could be someone in customer service. Look for the true believer and you’ll find a good blogger.
•  Edelman’s Rick Murray (President, me2revolution) talked about the need for marketers to find a way to fund Word of Mouth Marketing in their companies. He said that marketing budgets are a zero sum game, so you’ll need to fund WOM marketing with the dollars that might have been going to something else.
• Joel Book, director of e-marketing at ExactTarget, stressed the need to integrate any WOM marketing tactics well within your overall multi-channel marketing strategy. You’ll need buy-in from across your organization and awareness among key stakeholders about what the WOM tactics are likely to accomplish.

For those of you who attended the event, feel free to add your comments and impressions. And please let me know if this is a topic you’d like Shop.org to pursue even more than we already are. We’re here to help you, so please help us by telling us what you need.