Posts Tagged ‘WOM marketing’
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
Some simple but clear insights from Alexandra Rampy on social marketing. Read at your leisure. I found the below list of most interest – a set of principles that any socially grounded marketing project should hold close:
1. What behavior are we wanting to change?
2. What problem can we help solve?
3. Where do we want to go?
4. What’s our long-term plan?
5. How can we involve the consumer in developing the product, service, message, initiative, movement?
6. What are the barriers to the behavior we want to influence? the benefits?
7. What is our consumers’ current environment? Can we change it and how?
8. How can we add joy into the mix? Will rewarding good behavior provide more results than making consequences for bad behavior?
Before we write a press release to promote something, think first about the other four marketing p’s: price, product and place. Is there a certain product or service we can add into the mix to address behavior change? Is there a certain place in the consumer’s decision-making process where we need to active?
10. What does success look like?
11. Sound off: What other questions should we, with our social marketing hats on, be asking?
This condenses down nicely into (1) listening and understanding, (2) engaging in a way that rewards and (3) measuring behaviour change – which is highly qualitative and cannot be evaluated effectively by clicks and hits. It’s also refreshing to note that Alexandra is *not* talking specifically about social media here. @1000heads think the best results are achieved by thinking outside of the channel and across all social interfaces (advertising, marketing, in-store, billing, care etc) in order to achieve the highest degree of social change. Customers aren’t avatars.
Friday, August 21st, 2009
Self-hosting social media platforms are bound to grow. When blog self-hosting through the likes of WordPress and Blogger has far outstripped the uptake of blogs offered on centralised, branded sites, isn’t it time that the same model was applied to microblogging, lifestreaming, media sharing sites and social networks?
Over at ReadWriteWeb, Marshall Kirkpatrick has given a good overview of the dissatisfaction with our current hosted platforms which is leading users to hunger for a less centralised, more distributed social web. Initiatives such as the DiSo Project, which aims ‘to facilitate the creation of open, non-proprietary and interoperable building blocks for the decentralized social web’, are still in their infancy, but brands need to be aware of this trend towards increased individual ownership of conversational spaces online. Why?
Well, mainly because it emphasises just how important it is for brands to inspire peer to peer WOM, rather than rely on consumers interacting with their brand voice on social platforms. Sure, a good brand Twitter feed, Facebook group or YouTube channel can be welcomed by the community if it gives some value back – but it’s a very different thing having a brand join the conversation on a hosted platform (where they’ve often shelled out for the privilege) to having them barge into your own self-hosted site and try to grab your attention there.
Brands will find it difficult to ethically participate in the independent web unless they abandon their emphasis on ‘their’ venues, ‘their’ content and ‘their’ message and start to consider the best ‘brand voice’ as an amalgam of all those consumer voices out there. Inspiring and empowering brand advocacy on people’s own terms and in their own venues not only creates a dialogue between brand and consumer where the power is shared and value continually exchanged, but it results in the sort of emotionally engaged WOM that is truly influential. Whenever it comes, the rise in multi-platform self-hosting will raise the bar for marketers. We welcome it.
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Yesterday afternoon saw my first board meeting as President of WOM UK and it was fantastic to witness the level of skill and commitment in the room. Word of mouth marketing is a young industry and it’s rare we get an opportunity to have a safe space to learn from our peers and share and challenge our thinking on the best, most effective and most ethical WOM practices. We’re asking our members exactly what their hopes, ideas, questions and concerns are for the future of WOM in the UK, but as part of a very global company, I wanted to throw this out to the big wide social mediasphere:
What would you like to see from the WOM industry over the next year?
I’m guessing responses are going to focus heavily on things like establishing coherent and consistent models for WOM ROI; constantly evolving ethical guidelines; more psychological as well as quantitative research into what makes people talk about brands and why; access to practical case studies; and demonstrations of how how offline and online WOM go hand in hand. But go on, surprise me…
A big call out is in order to the other WOM UK board members helping make the WOM industry in the UK the best it can be: Steve Barton from Advokator; Brad Little form Nielsen Online; Andrew Needham from Face Group; Ivan Palmer from Wildfire; Fleur Hicks-Duarte from Pass It On Media; Benn Achilleas from Neoco; Hamish Priest from Oglivy One; Alex Ricketts from Royal Mail; Rob Jenkins from Know; Atheer Al-Salim from Porter Novelli; Alan Parker from Golin Harris and Graham Hansell from Sitelynx. That’s a whole lot of expertise right there, and we want to hear your needs and ideas, whether you’re a brand, agency, bureau, marketer or just a social media fan.
Monday, August 17th, 2009
They’re three pretty simple little words, but we use them all the time. They cement our relationships. They’re the catalysts for our conversations. They’re so familiar that most of us barely acknowledge them, responding with an automatic ‘fine’ or ‘good’. But they’re still used as a mechanism of social connection every day, because they mean: I care. Before we talk about me, let’s talk about you.
Rachel Schell on Flickr
Sadly, those three little words are absent from the relationships and conversations most brands have with their consumers. In the final instalment of my 3-part guide on word of mouth for Utalk Marketing, I try to tackle the big, broad behemoth of a question – how marketers should engage with their customers – with some reminders that the best WOM marketing springs from a clear-eyed acknowledgement of how socialising works.
Read the whole thing here and let us know what you think below.
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
I’m delighted to announce this morning that, as 1000heads WOM Evangelist, I’ve been voted in as the new President of WOM UK. WOM UK is the organisation the represents the word of mouth industry across the UK, aimed at establishing best practice and ethical guidelines, as well as educating marketers and clients alike about the benefits, methods and developments of WOM, and showcasing the best and most innovative companies and case studies operating out there.
It’s a fantastic opportunity to help spread the word and good work of a relatively young industry, working alongside international sister organisations such as the US-based WOMMA. I’m looking forward to collaborating with and learning from the great agencies and brands already on board (including such diverse members as Nielsen, Edelman, IPA, Unilever, Royal Mail and The Guardian) and bubbling with ideas about how to make WOM UK more relevant and dynamic and than ever. Whether you’re a dedicated WOM agency, an established company looking to branch out into conversational marketing, or any business, institution or brand wanting to approach WOM in the right way from the start, membership is a must. More to come!
