5 Tips from M80's Dave Neupert

Many brands aren't yet aware that it's possible to have two-way 'conversations' with consumers, believes Dave Neupert, CEO of M80. "Everything's transparent, that's the key," he says. "It's simply empowering organic word of mouth through using authentic voices."

Here Dave shares five practical tips on creating customer conversations based on his experiences helping brands gather authentic brand ambassadors.

Tip #1. Don't try to recreate the wheel
Look for people in communities where the brand is already being talked about. This can be as simple as beginning with a search on Google, community sites, or social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook. Look for the biggest community talking about the product. Find the webmasters of those communities.

Tip #2. Begin communications (not marketing)
Research is just as important as marketing. Spend time discovering the real conversations. Then, reach out. If you've found the right people -- already interested in your brand -- they should be happy to hear from you.

Tip #3. Let them share, ask them to share
You can build tools such as videos your influencers can share with the others they interact with online. You can also ask them to share personal information, such as photos of themselves, stories of interactions with your brand, and answers to surveys and polls.

Tip #4. "Membership has its privileges"
Launch contests, offer freebies, and let them know you're aware of their efforts. For example, some communities build tools to measure pass-along. When community members pass along a video, the pass-along tool measures how many times each individual forwarded it. Then, says Dave, you can do contests to see who forwarded the video the most.

Tip #5. Let them know their opinion matters
Once you've empowered a community, it's a customer relationship initiative. The more you stay in touch with that customer, the more you know what they want. While you may find it useful to create a community for just a short time period -- say, a matter of months for a specific promotion around a specific product -- it usually makes sense to maintain those relationships.

"Once consumers realize that their voice has an impact, that we're listening, it's powerful," Dave summarizes. "Consumers are really the marketers these days, and other traditional advertising methods don't have the same impact they used to have."

More about Dave:

Web site

Bio

Read Dave's WOMBAT presentation (PDF download)