The Relationship Between Social Media and Word of Mouth

While I don't consider myself a WOM marketing expert by any stretch of the imagination, I am a "believer and talker," and appreciative to Andy for the invitation. 

Some of the discussions among group members spurred my thinking about the relationship between WOM and social media, so I reached out to the group and asked the question, what is the relationship between word of mouth marketing and social media marketing? 

That gave way to a bevy of responses, which I plan to turn into a multi-part series here (don't know how many as of yet). 

I'd like to kick off the discussion by sharing Andy's response. I'd like to hear yours as well in the form of a comment, so please feel free to share. 

Andy's remarks...

"Social media is an incredible tool. It enables fast conversations as well as widespread conversations and connects people who would rarely see each other. It gives speed and scale to word of mouth. But social media is not word of mouth marketing. It’s a tool we can use for the online portion of word of mouth. 

"But it's not even the main tool there. I would argue that more recommendations go by plain old-fashioned email than all the social networks combined.

"On top of that, offline word of mouth is so much bigger than online. A tweet still doesn't beat a personal recommendation from a close friend.

"The point of word of mouth is to be a brand worth talking about. To be a company that people are proud to tell their friends about. It's to replace paid marketing with personal connections. To replace cash with love. To be fantastic.

"Social media adds scale and reach to word of mouth. Word of mouth is the thing that matters."

How would you respond to Andy's comments? Agree? Disagree?