Andiamo! - Word of Mouth Marketing Blog

SocialSpark - New Resource Center & Network for Bloggers

If you are new to blogging, or have been at it for awhile and want to find more ways to grow traffic, ad revenue or whatever goals you have in mind, check out SocialSpark, which just launched this week. It's both a solutions center with lots of tools to help grow and better manage your blog, as well as a network that allows bloggers and advertisers to connect about advertising and sponsorship opportunities.

Some of the cool tools include professional blog templates, an email forward feature for posts, an easy-to-use poll application and BlogPatrol, which adds some additional stats for your blog traffic. Andiamo Systems is also a partner with SocialSpark. Go check it out, you have nothing to lose and possibly lots to gain.

Zagat - Too Clever For Their Own Good

Email is one of, if not the best, vehicles for driving word of mouth for a brand. So if you are an email marketer always keep this in mind. It's not just your recipients you are communicating with but potentially many times more. It's very easy to hit 'forward' in your email reader.

So, with that in mind here is a terrible headline from an email a friend of mine received from Zagat:

Amber Alert? Are you kidding me!? Never let the need for creativity or cleverness beat out good 'ol common sense. This is an offensive and thoughtless to say the least. My friend forwarded this email to me and several other folks in regards to this headline.  Will it keep me from using the Zagat guide, or visiting this restaurant? Maybe, maybe not,  but it certainly doesn't build brand equity for either one!

Check Out 'Search Engine Marketing Journal'

We all know how powerful search engine marketing (SEM) is to drive brand awareness and more importantly leads and sales. A significant amount of Andiamo Systems' marketing budget is allocated to Google Adwords and to a lesser extent Yahoo! and MSN.

And increasingly, the realization of the tight connection between SEM and social media is becoming more obvious. For some brands and industries there are as many first page search engine results that are from blogs, forums and social networks as there are from traditional mainstream media. That's largely because search engines eat blogs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They are updated frequently, have lots of content and are typically well-formatted for easy SE crawling. So you need to make sure you have an understanding of how SEM can affect your business.

Which leads me to the Search Engine Marketing Journal (SEMJ). SEMJ is the first printed journal dedicated to the advancement of search engine marketing. What? A print pub about online marketing? Yep. Don't worry, they also have a great website. It is unique in that it is a peer-reviewed journal where anyone is free to contribute. All papers are screen by a team of editors (disclosure: I am Senior Editor) to ensure that the quality is top-notch, relevant and actionable for businesspeople to use.

These guys are leveraging the power of user-generated content to bring continually updated, and fresh information, always showing a unique perspective. Check them out!

Another Example of Blogger's Commercial Impact

Even with all the buzz out there about blogs, social networks and the like most companies still haven't taken action by either starting a corporate blog or at least listening and responding to comments and discussions on blogs and social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

But that's definitely starting to change. Businesses are realizing the potent power of Word of Mouth and its ability to shape consumer perception and purchase intent.

Take the recent Dunkin' Donuts example. Most of you probably heard about the Rachel Ray advertisement, and the uproar the ad caused by the scarf she wore. Appears the black & white paisley patterned scarf resembles a Muslim keffiyeh. Many, mostly conservative, bloggers were insulted, and made their feelings known by posting negative comments about Dunkin's choice of apparel.

The management at Dunkin realized this is a potential harm to their reputation and brand equity and took immediate action:

1) They responded to at least the most influential bloggers with the following message:

"In the ad that you reference, Rachael is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design that was purchased at a U.S. retail store," the company responded to bloggers. "It was selected by the stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we will no longer use the commercial."

2) They did what they promised and pulled the ad. And that's not cheap! This ad was part of a $40MM national broadcast, print and online campaign.

Now, whether you agree with the uproar over the ad, or fell it was an incredible over-reaction or mis-understanding of the keffiyeh and Arab culture is irrelevant here. The point is, the power of consumers over brands is irrefutable, and smart companies like Dunkin' monitor social media and take action!

All a-Twitter

So I was speaking at a conference a week ago, and EVERYONE was either talking about Twitter and/or Twittering during the show. I have had a Twitter profile for a long time, but rarely use it. It just seemed like yet another low-utility site that turns into a time-suck to keep up with. But I am re-considering.

If you don't know what Twitter is, it can be described as easy collaborative communication or 'micro-blogging'. It reminds me of many-to-many SMS (the Short Message Service that is what text messaging is for mobile phones). By that I mean most people 'tweet' in short bursts, 140 characters or less, about what they're doing, where they are and increasingly what they like and dislike about brands.

Twitter claims about 1 million accounts, and a recent count showed Twitter getting about 1.2 million monthly U.S. visitors (this is only visits to the website, and does not include users on mobile, via other applications, etc.)

That pales in comparison to giants like Facebook, but the numbers are strong and growing. And more companies like JetBlue are getting in the picture and connecting with potential customers there.

Why? If you target early adopters, affluent, or even people in the social media world, many of them are here. Create a profile and check it out!

Great example of listening & responding to blogs

As many of you know, especially you wine afficiandos out there, Robert Mondavi passed away a couple weeks ago on May 16. he was a revered man and truly left a lasting legacy in the wine industry.

Not surprisingly, there were hundreds of posts on message boards, forums and blogs from people lamenting the loss and offering best wishes to the family. But the next part is surprising:

The Robert Mondavi Family actually sent an email to everyone who had published or posted about Robert, thanking them for their thoughts and wishes.

How'd they do it? They monitored everyone that talked about them (using Andiamo Systems, but that's not the point of this article), recorded the information and email addresses and sent it out.

Why'd they do it? Out of sheer gratitude for the outpouring of emotions and kind wishes. But an unplanned side benefit of the family's response to all the well-wishers has been brand equity-building as many of the posters were shocked and thrilled that they took the time to read and respond in such a timely, kind way. This post is from the blog WINExpression:                                                                                                                                             
The lesson, even as it pertains to this very sad event: 1) Listen to what your customers are discussing in social media 2) Always learn from it 3) And when appropriate, respond. Whether it is in response to a product or service issue, or as in this case thanking them for a kind gesture. It puts a human face to a corporate entity. And people like that!

Use Social Media in a Tough Economy

Whether the US economy is actually in a recession or not, no one can argue that we're facing some tough times, and as marketers we should all be concerned about consumer spending. And when there are worries about spending, advertising budgets typically shrink. Sure, overall ad spending may show some strength with the 2008 Olympics and that other event...what is it...oh yeah, the election.

But if you are faced with this shrinking budget dilemma, it's time for you to consider using social media to get a great bang for the buck. Here's a couple things you should consider:

• Start blogging! If you have been waiting for a good reason to start, here it is! It's cheap!
• Participate on other targeted, popular blogs in your industry. Become known as a credible source or even an expert!
• Set up a Facebook page or start a Facebook group for your business
• And if you are feeling particlularly energetic, shoot a video for your business and put it on YouTube

Now, I am not recommending that social media marketing is the panacea for all your marketing challenges. There are no silver bullets (dang it!). You have to contact and communicate with your target customers throughout the purchase cycle.

Tablet Hotels - Great Social Media Ideas

If you haven't used Tablet Hotels to find and book a hotel room yet, give 'em a try! I got hooked on these guys several years ago after finding them on Google. They are a broker of sorts and and only suggest hotels that really believe in. They have a good (and growing) global coverage, great write-ups and photo galleries and helpful categories, for instance: Style: 'Cutting Edge' Atmosphere: Lively, and so on. Really helps you pinpoint a great place for your stay.

Their service is excellent, but what I like best about them is their social media marketing.

• They always follow-up with a survey after your stay,
• Invite you to share your opinions
• Include a 'Share with a Friend' on each email they send
• They Twitter, and do a pretty good job of having relevant information posted (see an upcoming post for good/bad uses of Twitter)
• and they just launched a Facebook application called the "Global Nomad Challenge"

This is a clever little contest where you guess the location of a hotel based on a photo. Participants have a chance to win free stays in hotels and other prizes. It's still early-on, but they are generating consumer engagement, brand-building and awareness and pretty much kicking Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity's butt in terms of interactive, social media marketing. And it's gonna win them business. None of these tactics is particularly difficult to execute, so pick an opportunity that makes most sense for your business and go for it!

And please share any experiences you have!

Stats on the Power of Social Media

I just spoke at the VerticalResponse Spring Marketing Conference, about the power of social media and word of mouth marketing in affecting brand perception and purchase intent. Afterward, lots of people approached me and asked me to email them some of the statistics I discussed. They wanted to use these as ammunition to help get budgets for social media marketing. They really are powerful, so here's some of the most compelling:

• "59% of consumers consider customer reviews to be more valuable than 'expert' reviews." - BizRate
• "The are over 75,000 new blogs created each day, updated to the tune of over 1.2 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second." - Technorati
• "3/4 of consumers rate Word of Mouth as the #1 influencer of purchase intent." - Nielsen
• Facebook has 35 million uniques per month, and growing.
• MySpace has 69 million unique users per month
• More than 35 million US adults regularly share their opinions online about products and services. And that doesn't even count people who passively read these opinions without commenting.
• P&G recently stated that a social media campaign on Beinggirl.com was 4x as effective as TV ads.

So embrace social media and word of mouth marketing! I hope these help. Start your own blog, forum or Facebook group and participate on other social media venues. And most importantly do something positive that gets people talking about you on other blogs, forums, message boards and social networks.

How are you using social media in a clever or cost-effective way to reach your customers? Let us know!

Quick Tip to View Your Mention Count

Andiamo Systems provides 8 different reports to get a full understanding of the social media around your brands. And most reports are able to be viewed in various formats as well as downloaded to .CSV, XML or .TXT. That said, we've received a few questions about how to quickly get a very basic bit of information - "How do I quickly see a count summary of my mentions by week or month?"

Here's the best way to get this:

• First, select the 'Trends' report from the left navigation. It defaults to a daily line graph:

1. Then, select the date range you want
2. From the format drop down list, select 'Vertical Bar'
3. Select either weekly or monthly from the 'Show By' menu

And voilå:

You can mouse over any of the bars to get the exact count for that time period, and as always you can  click through to view all your mentions for that time period as well.

Play around with the different formats in the reports, you may find a format that better fits your needs than the defaults!