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Come to the amazing Word of Mouth Crash Course on May 10 in Austin. It’s the “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” conference, and it’s the only one like it in the world.

You’ll experience 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors — all in one thrilling day.

Our classes will teach you everything you need to know to get people talking about you the very next day. They’ll blow your mind:

• How to work with influential talkers
• How to create buzzworthy topics
• How to inspire word of mouth with customer service
• How to get people talking offline
• How to be amazing in social media
• How to create a fan community
• How to join conversations about your brand
• How to deal with negative word of mouth
• How to measure word of mouth
• How to get great reviews
• How to create word of mouth on zero budget
• How to stay ethical and out of trouble

…and that’s just the classes! We’ve also got word of mouth case studies from the brilliant folks at Threadless, Rackspace, Maker’s Mark, Movember, Discovery Communications, Costco, and more.

More on our classes, the 12 real-world case studies, and the 6 brilliant authors at www.wordofmouth.org/crashcourse.

People love this event. Check out the word of mouth about the word of mouth conference:

“This is awesome: well-organized, effective, and the people are smart.” — Molly Catalano, Five Guys

“This conference is worth twice what was charged. I came back to work with a spreadsheet of 50 ideas that I can start implementing right away.” — Delaina Lee, The Coleman Company

“A great conference.” — Laura Vanison, Universal McCann

“This conference was excellent.” — Seth Brewer, The Hartford

“My senses were popped, poked, and plastered with information, perspective, and knowledge — all in a ‘this is how you do it’ format.” –Jim Fitzpatrick, Santa Barbara Montessori School

“Great insights!” — Kate Marcotte, 3M

“This conference ranks #1 in experience.” — Lindsay Lebresco, Converseon

“I loved the event. I’m already incorporating the tips into proposals and client work.” — Danielle Rudy Davis, Peritus

“All I can say about the conference is WOW.” — Stephanie Lewis, TC Public Relations

“Great content throughout the day!” — Brent Bynum, State Farm Insurance

“I felt like I got my money’s worth in the first 20 minutes!” — Janine Smiley, Dairy Farmers of America

“I enjoyed every moment of the event.” — Saul Colt, FreshBooks

“An excellent and extraordinary conference!” — Lane Becker, Get Satisfaction

“Definitely a ‘must attend‘ conference.” — Michelle Halm, Kolcraft

“We now have so many ideas on how to better spread our WOM, we don’t even know where to start!” — Heather Vyvyan, Educators Credit Union

“A stellar event!” — Nichole DuPont, BUNN

Learn more and register: www.wordofmouth.org/crashcourse

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Numbers from September 2011 show Yelp has more than 61 million monthly visitors who are reading more than 22 million reviews. It’s an incredibly powerful word of mouth community that every day influences where millions of people do business.

How to get more of your fans leaving reviews:

1. Remind your customers
2. Link to your Yelp profile
3. Reply and respond

1. Remind your customers

When was the last time you woke up and said, “Today’s the day I write a review for that business I love!”? For most of us, we just don’t think this way. This is why you need to regularly tell your customers how important their word of mouth is to you. Put signs on your tables, add it to your business cards, put it on your invoices, and remind people on the way out the door. Just keep it simple and don’t be pushy — something like, “Please let us know how we’re doing on Yelp” can make a big difference.

2. Link to your Yelp profile

Even when you’re not openly asking for reviews, you can still drive a lot of fans to them by simply linking to your Yelp profile from your website, your email signature, and your newsletters. And if you’re hesitant because you’re concerned about your current ratings, remember this: Strangers are already going to Yelp first. Pointing your happy customers and loyal fans there means they can add their voice to the conversation.

3. Reply and respond

Like any community, your Yelp page is healthier and better when you’re involved. The more you engage, the more reviews you get (and the higher quality they’ll be). For more on this, check out Yelp’s recommendations on how to participate.

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Triggers are simple items that prompt a word of mouth conversation. Think of little, visible things that get people to ask about you.

Here are a few easy places to add yours:

1. Your receipts
2. Your email footers
3. Your packages

1. Your receipts

Receipts are great places to put word of mouth triggers because they’re something you’re already handing out to every customer. Start conversations by putting sharable coupons on them, passes to special events, and an invitation to subscribe to your newsletter. You’re already handing out so many of these every day, why not use them to start conversations?

2. Your email footers

Think about how many emails you send. Now multiply that by the number of people in your company. It all quickly adds up to a lot of opportunities to get people talking. Try putting your latest word of mouth topic at the bottom of your emails and see what happens. You don’t have to make it complicated or salesy — it can be as simple as “P.S. We’re doing this cool project over on our Facebook page, have you seen it?”

3. Your packages

Your packages, your bags, and even your products themselves are great places to put word of mouth triggers. Throw in extra samples, catalogs, menus, branded gear, hand-written notes — anything that will help your customers tell the next people they see about you.

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Topics are the ideas, features, and attention-grabbers you use to give your talkers something to talk about. You should be creating and testing as many as you can, as often as you can, until you find a few that really take off.

What to remember when developing yours:

1. Keep it simple
2. Make it organic
3. Look for the unexpected

1. Keep it simple

Simple topics are easy to share and are much more likely to get repeated than long, jargon-filled ones. Recent favorites to inspire you are IKEA’s “Manland,” JetBlue’s auctioning of seats on eBay, and the library where you can check out a human being. All these topics are great because they’re simple, they’re fun, and they’re easy to tell a friend about.

2. Make it organic

Organic topics are built in to your products. They’re key features, perks, and bonuses that inspire conversations. The best all-time example of this is the flower vase built in to VW Bugs. This simple feature continues to start conversations every day, even though it originally came out in the 1950’s. (Note: VW removed this feature for the 2012 model, which is a topic for a future issue on how to kill a great conversation.)

3. Look for the unexpected

Some of your best topics will come not from you, but from your fans. Watch how people use and talk about your stuff and if you see a great topic emerge (even if it’s not perfectly aligned with your brand message), go with it. Think like Duck brand duct tape when they saw kids creating prom outfits with their tape. They saw a great topic and created a scholarship to encourage other kids to do it, and have since created a whole bunch of new conversations.

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You’ve got an infinite number of talkers you can seek out and earn word of mouth from. But because you don’t have an infinite number of hours in the day, start with these:

1. New customers
2. Long-time customers
3. Loyal employees

1. New customers

First-time customers make for powerful, eager talkers. But you only get one first impression, so you need to make the most of it. Give these potential talkers the chance to sample your best stuff and the tools to tell everyone about you. If you’re a restaurant, for example, this could be your one shot to blow them away — so make sure they get to sample that dessert everyone raves about (and a menu to take back to the office).

2. Long-time customers

Long-time, loyal customers can be your word of mouth bedrock. They already know how great you are, but they forget or don’t realize just how important their referrals are for you. Inspire them to talk by inviting them to join VIP groups, asking for their input on business decisions, or just simply asking them for referrals. Think about it — when was the last time you reminded your best customers how much their word of mouth means to you?

3. Enthusiastic employees

It’s fun to work at a place worth talking about, and many of your employees would love to help share your company and cause with their networks. Make sure they have access to samples, beta products, sharable discounts, and any sales materials they can forward to friends and prospects. Use tact in doing this — you don’t want to make anyone feel pressured to talk — but you want to make sure they have all the tools to do so when they feel the urge.

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As we kick off a new year, we wanted to pause for a minute to look back at some of the greatest word of mouth stories from the past one. Here are three favorites that got us talking:

1. The movement that raised $100 million in 30 days
2. The chain restaurant that doubles as a community center
3. The movie theater that delights fans by kicking out jerks
4. Share your favorites

1. The movement that raised $100 million in 30 days

The Movember project had it all: It was fun, inspiring, easy to get involved, easy to talk about, and it raised a ton of money for men’s health.

With support from more than 850,000 people, Movember raised an unbelievable $105 million in 30 days. Think about that: There were no corporate sponsors. This was a worldwide movement powered by millions of on and offline conversations.

There were so many great word of mouth concepts used by this project, we wrote a whole newsletter on it.

2. The chain restaurant that doubles as a community center

If you follow us at all, you know we’re constantly talking about how the path to true word of mouth is built with a zillion tiny, genuine gestures designed to earn the respect and recommendation of your customers. Few embody this ideal more than Hamid Chaudhry who took over a small-town Dairy Queen franchise and steadily earned the love of his entire community.

He frequently hosts fundraisers for local groups (and regularly donates more than these modest events raise), he randomly shows up at schools with frozen treats, and people see his restaurant as the central hub of the town.

Today Hamid has an incredible base of fans that will carry him through good times and bad, and it’s something we all should be striving for.

3. The movie theater that delights fans by kicking out jerks

Word of mouth isn’t about making everyone happy — it’s about making the right customers fall in love. That’s the heart of the Alamo Drafthouse’s strict “no talking or texting during movies” policy. They’re serious about it. So much so, they posted an angry voicemail they received from a customer they booted for texting.

The video became an absolute sensation with more than 2.3 million YouTube views and the theater received an outpouring of support for defending their much-loved policy.

Standing for something (and against something else) is how brands build loyal followings, and the world needs more of it.

4. Share your favorites

Do you have a favorite word of mouth story from 2011? What companies are you talking about, and how are they inspiring you to do it? Big or small, we’d love to hear about it.

Add your favorites in the comments below.

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As we often say, every brand experiences negative feedback. But it’s how you handle it that separates you from everyone else. If you’re willing to engage genuinely and honestly, you can expect one of these three positive results:

1. Love
2. Respect
3. Truth

1. Love

The response you should always aim for is to turn a former critic into a loyal, adoring fan. By acting quickly and making things right, you’ll get customers posting things like, “I love these guys. They saw my problem, approached me, and fixed it.” An upset customer might talk to five people, but a formerly upset customer you win over will talk to 10 times as many.

2. Respect

If you can’t earn their love, you should at least work to win their respect. You won’t always be able to fix every problem, but a genuine effort can still turn the conversation around. In this scenario, you’re looking for a response like, “They couldn’t fix my problem, but they came to me and tried to help. I respect them for it.”

3. Truth

Finally, sometimes you’ll find yourself dealing with someone who just can’t be reasoned with. When this happens, it’s not the attacker you’re trying to speak to, it’s everyone else following along. If you make an honest attempt to fix the problem, everyone else will see the critic being unfair and know you tried to do the right thing.

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Somewhere online, people are talking about you. It’s happening in blog posts, in community forums, and on Twitter and Facebook. And all of these talkers would love to hear from you — so go ahead, jump in. Just remember these fundamentals when doing it:

1. Never sell
2. Follow the rules
3. Say who you are

1. Never sell

Before you say this rule is “so 2007,” think about how many well-meaning marketers still go into communities with a sales mindset every day. Remember the basics: Be helpful, add to the conversation, and never, ever act salesy. Blowing this basic is the fastest way to turn a positive conversation into a negative one.

2. Follow the rules

Every community is different, and you’ll have much more success if you take the time to familiarize yourself with the house rules before jumping in. How do people typically communicate? How do others introduce themselves? Is it acceptable to bring up your company and if so, when? Remember you’re a guest when commenting in someone else’s forum or on their blog and knowing the rules helps get you welcomed back.

3. Say who you are

Always disclose who you are and who you work for whenever talking about your company or your industry. We recommend these 10 Magic Words: “I work for [company name] and this is my personal opinion.” Done right, disclosure isn’t something that gets in the way, it’s something that adds credibility and builds trust.

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All those customers that come in and out of your store or visit your website every day represent a huge word of mouth opportunity. It’s all about turning these passing shoppers into active talkers. A few ideas to get you started:

1. Get their contact information
2. Give them a reason to come back
3. Make it all worth talking about

1. Get their contact information

It’s a lot easier to build a relationship with a one-time customer if you have their permission to contact them again. Email is still the best way to do this, and a great newsletter can keep them thinking about (and talking about) you long after the original sale. Some brands are figuring out how to do this with Facebook and Twitter, and that’s fine too. Whatever tool you use, find a great way to ask everyone who comes in the door.

2. Give them a reason to come back

A customer you can get back into your store is exponentially more likely to talk than a one-time shopper. Try inviting your customers back with an invite to a private sale, a training class, or a special event. Whenever you meet a new customer, always have a reason ready for them to come again — and to bring a friend when they do.

3. Make it all worth talking about

All the tools and tactics you use to get people talking should be in addition to a fundamentally remarkable shopping experience. Think about everything the customer experiences from the moment they meet you and ask yourself, “Would anyone tell a friend about this?” If not, it needs more work. New customers are more than a potential transaction, they’re an audition.

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Topics are what fuel your word of mouth program. They’re the experiences, features, and moments that drive conversations about you — and it’s important you’ve got a plan to keep them going. The three stages your plan should include:

1. A topic you can use today
2. A campaign worth talking about
3. A commitment to making everything buzzworthy

1. A topic you can use today

The beauty of word of mouth is that you can get started, right now, with no budget or extensive preparation. The first part of creating your topics plan is to dive in and start experimenting. When you see what gets shared (and what doesn’t), you’ll start to develop a good idea of how to get your talkers excited. So give it a go. Try something, see what happens, and try again.

2. A campaign worth talking about

You can create fantastic topics from campaigns specifically designed to generate word of mouth. This is stuff like repeatable advertising, content with viral potential, and the occasional goofy stunt. These will require a little more planning, but you can probably get most of them going in just a few weeks.

3. A commitment to making everything buzzworthy

The best topic of all comes from fundamentally being a brand worth talking about. This is why we love Apple, Southwest Airlines, Chick-fil-A, and Moleskine notebooks. It’s a combination of great products, uniqueness, personality, remarkable brand experiences — and a fundamental commitment to word of mouth.