[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
Help turn customers and casual fans into spokespeople by adding these key elements to your word of mouth program:
1> Exclusive content
2> Status and recognition
3> Helpful tools
1> Exclusive content
If everyone knows about something, there’s not much value in sharing it — even for a hardcore fan. It’s the exclusive, all-new, never-before-seen, super-nerdy details that fuel conversations. Not everyone will fully appreciate the specs and geeky news, but the enthusiasm it generates among your core talkers can be hard for everyone else to ignore.
2> Status and recognition
Give status and recognition to your biggest fans to both initiate conversations and promote existing ones. In some programs, it’s the status that generates the talking (like Microsoft’s MVP program), while in others, it’s the talking that earns the status (like say, White Castle’s Hall of Fame). Either way, it all adds up to a lot of conversations about you.
3> Helpful tools
Tools that create conversations help turn a casual customer into an evangelist. We’re not talking about ads and brochures (at least in the traditional sense). We’re talking about amazing welcome kits for new customers, demos fans can share with friends, and simple hand-outs that make it easy to introduce you.
UPS: Building a business case for customer support
PepsiCo: Recruiting talent with social media
Radian6: An exclusive chat with CEO Marcel LeBrun
BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media