Sernovitz: Part 2

In my previous post, I only looked at the topics that Andy Sernovitz covers in Part 1 of his book. In my book, these are only the first three chapters. It made more sense to divide the posts into Part 1 and Part 2 of Word of Mouth Marketing, as opposed to chapter 1-5 and chapters 6-9. With this clarification, I will now look at Part 2, which discusses in detail the five t's of word of mouth marketing.

Talkers. Andy writes, "Remember what you've learned - consumers turn to people like us." Think of who you ask for an opinion about a purchase. You may look online and see what the experts are saying, but more than anything you talk to your friends, coworkers, family members, and neighbors. These are people just like you, and they are who you listen to. Andy's point is that when companies identify talkers, they should focus on everyday people who will talk about their product not like a sales rep, but like a typical consumer.

Topics. Sernovitz boils down the question of topics into what simple statement: "keep it simple, organic, and portable." Do not make an idea too complex. If you do this, consumers will not remember it and it will go nowhere. Organic refers to the fact that a topic should be something that comes naturally to the product. Do not make up a topic just to be interesting. Instead, let one evolve on its own. The concept of being portable goes hand-in-hand with being simple. If a topic is short and sweet, it will easily be transferred from one person to another. Also, topics do not necessarily have to be about the product. They can be about great customer service. For instance, there are certain products, e.g. toothpaste, eye drops, and car insurance, that will never be interesting or exciting. These companies need to focus instead on customer service and the company as a whole, not the product.

Tools. When it comes to tools, Andy mostly discusses the idea of using blogs. My copy of this book is from 2006, before Facebook and Twitter had become as large as they are. Therefore, Andy does not discuss the use of social media nearly as much as blogging. He does, however, put forth some easy concepts that any company can do in order to further word of mouth marketing. The three big ideas he repeats over and over are to ask people to spread the word, put everything in an email, and put a tell-a-friend link on every page of your website. Do these, and you will most definitely see an increase in word of mouth marketing.

Taking Part. This is one of the most important aspects of word of mouth marketing. Sernovitz writes, "Fixing problems is the most powerful marketing you can do." People may be talking nonstop about your company, but if you do not take an active role and join the conversation, you will not reap the benefits. Always make sure that you are responding to nice things that people post, as well as fixing problems that people have. We are human, and humans make mistakes. It is how you choose to deal with these mistakes that makes all the difference.

Tracking. I like to think of tracking as an extension of Taking Part. Tracking may not involve you joining a conversation, but it does involve you monitoring one. Again, people may be saying a lot about your company; it is your job to do the research and find out what those things are. There is software out there today, such as Radian6, that does a great job with monitoring the web for any mention of your company. Use these tools to track the conversation. Then you will be able to plan your next move more effectively.