How-To: Harness Word of Mouth as a Media Channel
5 Tips from BzzAgent's Dave Balter
"Word of mouth as a media form has substantial norms and trends that make it work," says Dave Balter. He should know. As founder and CEO of word of mouth innovator and advocate BzzAgent, he's spearheaded some 260 programs to pin down those word of mouth norms and trends.
To effectively implement word of mouth as a marketing tool, consider Dave's five tips for creating word of mouth media:
Tip #1. Think in terms of generations
Try visualizing word of mouth as ripples in order to understand its value. "It's not how many people you reach directly," Dave says, "but how many people they pass your message on to." That can be statistically represented by generations, he adds, which are a common word of mouth metric.
Tip #2. Know that WOM works with, not against, other media
"Word of mouth is a core element of how other media works," Dave says. He adds that 40% of all word of mouth dialogs use some other media form. "Word of mouth and other media are tied at the hip. You need to understand how other media is going to be talked about."
Tip #3. Approach WOM as a two-way dialogue
Word of mouth is a conversation. In other words, it's not just about showing a message, but about building a discussion around the values of a product or service. "The average word of mouth interaction lasts around eight minutes," he says. You should therefore educate customer volunteers to have the knowledge and background to have an informed discussion about your product.
Tip #4. Embrace disclosure
Word of mouth media requires disclosure because it's based on trust. "The reason word of mouth is so powerful is because it is credible and real," Dave says. Disclosure of involvement, then -- in a promotion or a conversation -- is key to success.
Tip #5. Spread WOM to multiple networks
Plant word of mouth seeds in the many networks that already surround you, Dave suggests. "It's not about creating word of mouth," he says, "but about generating it, finding communities who want to engage in it -- from social networks to book clubs -- and letting them in." Word of mouth, he concludes, travels faster when it exists within several circles of influence, rather than a static target audience.
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