[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text from the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
Sure, Twitter’s cool. So is Facebook. And YouTube. And Foursquare. And… we could play this game for a while (speaking of which, have you played with Quora yet?).
But before you get caught up in all these new toys, remember this: Many deserving companies have missed out on tons of word of mouth because they got caught up in all the new tools that none of their talkers had even heard of yet. Before you let this describe you, explore a few old tools that might be a better fit:
1> A printed newsletter
2> Stickers, buttons, and fake moustaches
3> The stuff you’re already sending
1> A printed newsletter
The irony of everyone jumping to the online tools means the old-fashioned printed stuff can be remarkable. What would happen if you tried regularly snail-mailing your fans some helpful tips, handy guides, or special artwork they could put on the wall? It might surprise you just how few fans know what you’re talking about when you ask them to follow you on Twitter, but it’s a safe bet they know how to open a mailbox.
2> Stickers, buttons, and fake moustaches
Never give a speech, attend an event, or visit clients without something to hand out. People love our smiley-face buttons and pins, and we’ve had similar success with handy bookmarks, whoopie cushions, and fake moustaches. People won’t talk about your flyer listing product features, but they will tell their friends about your goofy giveaway that made them smile (and then maybe get into specs and product features).
3> The stuff you’re already sending
The stuff you’re already creating, handing out, and shipping are potential word of mouth tools that most marketers ignore. Add extra samples to your shipments, make your packaging worth talking about, and give them a reason to share your receipts. Before you worry about finding a new tool, make sure you’re getting the most out of the things you’re already using.
Come to our upcoming BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media conference in Dallas to hear Texas Instruments, Shell, AMD, Coldwell Banker Real Estate, United Airlines, Level 3, Northwestern Mutual, and AT&T share 8 great case studies on corporate social media.
