[Welcome back to the Word of Mouth Marketing 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.]
In this issue, our Social Media Business Council Chief Evangelist, Bob Pearson, shares his tips for creating your word of mouth marketing plan:
1> Know your talkers first
2> Avoid getting lost in tools and tactics
3> Fans love to help
4> Listen to Bob’s live Supergenius preview
You can see Bob — as well as 30 other brilliant word of mouth marketers — live at GasPedal’s Word of Mouth Supergenius on December 16 in Chicago. This “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” conference features 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors.
1> Know your talkers first
Your plan to get people talking should begin with identifying who you hope to talk. Bob recommends initially focusing on your potential talkers by learning the language they use, the communities they join, and who they seek influence from. Bob suggests the simple step of putting your brand and key topics into Google and asking yourself if you have a personal relationship with everyone who shows up on the first page.
2> Avoid getting lost in tools and tactics
Word of mouth is much bigger than social media tools — it’s something you build into everything you do. While a YouTube channel or Facebook page may be part of your overall strategy, Bob says real word of mouth is the result of all the work you’ve done to get to know your customers. If you start thinking tactics instead of talkers, you’ll immediately narrow the potential ideas and strategies you could use to get people sharing.
3> Fans love to help
When building your plan and thinking about how to reach influencers, don’t overlook the people who already buy and love your stuff. Bob says that customers typically want to do one of three things: 1) Share ideas to help each other, 2) Share knowledge about products to help peers, or 3) Help solve a fellow customer’s problem because they’ve been there before. Before you get too far in your plan, be sure to ask: How does this involve our existing fan base?
4> Listen to Bob’s live Supergenius preview
Hear Bob expand on his big ideas for creating your word of mouth marketing plan, as well as reveal his word of mouth superpower here:
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