Talkers love the opportunity to show off their smarts, their insider-knowledge, or their special status.
Every time you help them show off their hard work and brains, you help them start conversations with friends, co-workers, and strangers.
How a word of mouth supergenius does it:
As one of the hottest new social networks, location-based foursquare is as much an all-out competition as it is a place to make friends. Community members participate by using their GPS-enabled devices to “check in” at locations around the world.
One of the big reasons behind the early success of foursquare is how they reward and promote their best users — which drives a lot of friendly competition and conversations around the social network.
These members are publicly awarded badges for various achievements, with the biggest users being recognized as “Mayors” of locations in which they have the most check-ins.
Supergenius Example #4: Garden Hearts
Garden Hearts, a produce company, was displaying some of their creations — including a head of lettuce that matures smaller than normal lettuce, making it the perfect size for a single serving of salad — at the 2009 NRA Show.
While the chef behind the booth was talking about his product, there was another item that the company was giving to people as they were walking away — branded nametag holders.
At the NRA Show, everybody was given a nametag in a standard, plastic holder. Garden Hearts made a canvas version (with pockets to hold a pen and cell phone) that displayed everyone’s nametag information in front, and also displayed the name of their company.
Not only did the new tags give the people who were wearing them an upgrade over the old ones, they made sure that anyone who looked at the tag also saw their brand name. And at a convention like the NRA Show, people are constantly looking at the tags to see who the person is, where they work, and what position they hold.
The Lesson: Let your brand enter the conversation even after people have left your booth by giving them something to wear.
[This post is part of a series inspired by some of the clever word of mouth marketing we saw at the NRA Show 2009 here in Chicago.]
Tune-up your website to help your fans talk about you:
1> Make it easy to print
2> Create images to share
3> Give
text to copy
1> Make it easy to print
When someone hits print from your site, how clean is the printout? Make sure your print style sheets are set up to include the core content of your web pages, without unnecessary design or navigation elements. If someone is about to print your site, they’re probably going to share it — make sure it looks great.
2> Create images to share
Make it easy for people to promote your stuff by offering banners or badges on your site that people can use on their sites. At the very least, your logo should be easy to grab and share, but you can extend this to promotional badges related to your products or events. Whether you use fancy badges that include links back to your site or simple images, be sure to offer them in multiple sizes and make them easy to steal.
3> Give text to copy
Putting blurbs of copy describing your company, your products, or services makes it easy for fans to quickly use it to promote you. Create both short and long versions, and be sure the copy includes a written link to your site. People are going to write about you — the easier it is to quote your text, the more likely the message will come out the way you want.
As one of the hottest new social networks, location-based foursquare is as much an all-out competition as it is a place to make friends. Community members participate by using their GPS-enabled devices to “check in” at locations around the world.
These members are publicly awarded badges for various achievements, with the biggest users being recognized as “Mayors” of locations in which they have the most check-ins.
