WOM10 - Word of Mouth on Steroids

Social Media is the “amplifier” for Word-of-Mouth

Written on May 20, 2012 by Blaine Millet in "Pull" marketing, Advocates, Authenticity, Business Strategy, Customer Experience, Customer Experience 2.0, Engagement, Marketing, Mind Shift, Passion, Relationships, Results, Social Media, Strategy, Transparency, Trust, Trusted Relationships, WOM on Steroids, WOM10, Word-of-Mouth, Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Word-of-Mouth has been around since the beginning of time – no one will every refute that fact. While it is the most powerful form of communications – because it carries with it things like “trust” and “integrity” and “recommendations” and “confirmation” and “credibility” and a host of other such terms – it has always been kind of a “one-on-one” activity.

You hear something and you tell someone else. Even if we extended it a bit, it is “one-to-few” at best since maybe you were telling people in a group at a party or event or maybe even e-mailed a few of your colleagues and friends. But while it is the most powerful and credible form of engagement and communications, it was never easy to leverage…until today!

Social Media changed the game for Word-of-Mouth – it handed it a megaphone! Today, you can share your great experiences and how much you like a particular product/service freely to a potentially very large audience of followers, friends, connections, etc. Social Media has finally given us the answer to the “leverage” question – it is the AMPLIFIER of Word-of-Mouth!

Word-of-Mouth hasn’t changed, just the ability to amplify what you normally would say “one-t0-one” has changed. This gives people and companies tremendous opportunity to use it correctly and expand their reach – but it also gives people the ability to misuse it and upset even more people than they ever could before. Which way are you using it? Unfortunately, the incredible “noise” on the social media channels is caused by not using it the way it was meant to be used. Trying to “buy” word-of-mouth and get people to share what they don’t really believe in or are passionate about or are not committed to doesn’t work. It didn’t work one-on-one so what makes anyone think it would work one-to-many? I don’t get it…

But for those that have highly credible word-of-mouth because of the experience they deliver to their customers/clients or the incredible value their products deliver or the improvements they received because of someone’s services, the ability to AMPLIFY WORD-OF-MOUTH is Nirvana and is the most powerful engagement strategy any organization can employ today. If you are one of these organizations, you are immediately miles ahead of your competition, but you have to start the “word-of-mouth engine” to take advantage of it and further leverage your great work. Gentlemen, start your engines…

0 Comments - Leave a comment! - Tags: Authenticity, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, Engage, Engaging, Mind Shift, Passion, Relationships, Social Media, Strategy, Transparency, Trust, Word-of-Mouth

If you want true success with Social Media, start with “WHY”

Written on May 17, 2012 by Blaine Millet in Best Practices, CEO, Customer Experience, Engagement, Expectations, Helping, Innovation, Leadership, Market Differentiation, Passion, Results, Risk, Strategy

I don’t know if you are in the same boat as I am, but I get bombarded by tons of people and companies anxious to tell me “HOW” to do social media and “WHAT” I need to have to be successful and “WHERE” I should go to get these super special services and results – but no one is asking the most important question out there when it comes to Social Media Business Strategy – “WHY”…

The only conclusion I can come to is that they are afraid of it because it is a deep and serious question and might not lead to what they are selling: the What, How and Where services. It seems like we have moved into a world of “Fire, limited Aiming, and Ready” these days. After being in business for over 25 years and helping companies create a solid business strategy, this is always the first question that needs to be asked. Why does social media change this paradigm? It doesn’t and it shouldn’t. If an organization can’t answer the “WHY” question, how accurately can they really answer the other questions of “What, Where, and How”?

Take a very simple non-business example everyone can relate to – going to the grocery store. If we do this the normal way, we start with a shopping list (the What), and then we decide which method we should use to get there (the How) and we make a choice of which store to go to that either is most convenient or has the right products (the Where). Pretty typical experience and process. But where you should start is by asking the purpose of going to the store, the very reason you had to plan all the other details out (the WHY).

The Why could start with, “we need to eat and nourish our bodies.” But dig deeper for the answer. Why do you need nourishment (besides just living)? Are you planning on training for a marathon, a hiking trip up the mountains, to have energy at work, to get fat (hopefully not but you’ll see my point here later), to feed a family, etc. There are lots of options for Why in this simple example…

The reason the WHY is so critical is that it determines the (What, Where, How) of you accomplishing the Why. If you were planning on being super active and running a marathon your “what” would be very different than needing nutrition for a very active family. Shopping for work related foods would be even more different as you would prefer lower calorie and energy to keep you going without adding weight. No one goes to the store with the Why question answer saying I want to get fat. But we all buy foods that give us this result. It is because we actually don’t go there with the “Why” in mind – we just dive right into the “What” is being pushed by the store to make the most profit or is a super deal of the day – not a good way to shop.

As a CEO or Business Owner or other Executive position, I would encourage you to rethink your social media efforts for a moment and ask yourself, “WHY are we even doing this?” While I believe every company should find their own way to take advantage of this incredibly powerful too, I think if you are like most executives I talk with, their “What, How, and Where” don’t match the real answer to the Why question. Any guesses as to why Brands are being eroded every day and more and more confusion is in the mind of your customers? Maybe it’s time to sit back and ask the one question that really matters, WHY…

0 Comments - Leave a comment! - Tags: Best Practices, Business Owner, CEO, Customer Experience, Helping, Leadership, Market Differentiation, Planning, Social Media, Strategy

Make the “i” in “ROi” first, then analyze the “R”

Written on May 16, 2012 by Blaine Millet in Business Strategy, CEOs, Increased Profitability, Marketing, Mind Shift, Results, ROI, Social Media, Traditional Marketing, Traditional Media

In the 100+ speeches I give every year, this one question is definitely in the “Top 5″ list of those I get asked, “What’s the ROI of Social Media?” Good question, much more difficult answer depending on the company, their strategy, goals, and expected outcomes.

In all my previous training working in a “Big 5″ firm for many years, IBM, and my MBA, one thing was very clear to me. When calculating and ROI, you first have to have an “I” to worry about the “R” or it’s a wasted discussion. Meaning…if you haven’t invested anything into the area you are considering, how can you expect to find much return. This is very real for this discussion because if you haven’t made much “investment” into social media, is it really fair to ask for a big “return”?

You also have to keep in mind the law of “comparatives” in this analysis. This says that if you are looking to “replace” something with something else, the ROI should be at least as great or greater but certainly not less or it isn’t a good business decision unless it is identified to be a good idea for other reasons. Let’s talk about this a bit further…

For example, in the case of social media, an executive might not want to “invest” a lot in social media because it is still new and in their mind unproven to them personally. So the default question becomes what is going to be the ROI of this investment of time and resources? Valid question – but only if you decide to engage with a solid “investment” can you start to get a solid “return”. They might have a $10k or $30k/month marketing/communication budget today but only invest $5k/month and expect the return to be greater than their other investments return – not a fair question.

The other factor to consider is what is the return on the other investment. The majority tell me that their current investment is generating less and less return every day – further illustrating the death of traditional media. No longer do they get anywhere near the return they did 5 or 10 years ago – the Mad Men model is dead. So a better question would be, “Can social media deliver a comparable or better return on the same investment I am making in traditional media today?” The answer should be a “YES” if a solid social media strategy is put in place – not just throwing “buttons” on the website.

So as an executive, ask yourself the ROI question with two things in mind: 1) am I willing to make an investment great enough to see a return; and 2) do I have a solid social media strategy in place that would give me a comparable or greater return than I am getting from my current (declining) marketing investment. These are the right “I” questions to answer and will give you a much greater success in generating the higher “R” in ROI.

0 Comments - Leave a comment! - Tags: Business Owner, CEO, Results, ROI, Social Media, Success

Happy Mothers Day…Spread the “word”…

Written on May 13, 2012 by Blaine Millet in Social Media, Word-of-Mouth

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to every mother out there – what a beautiful day we have been blessed with to honor our mothers, wives, grandmothers, mother-in-laws, and any other mother you know that deserves to be honored today!

My message is simple today…

For one day of the year (at least) stop telling everyone how wonderful you are, where you’re eating muffins, who you’re eating muffins with (unless it’s your mother), or anything else about YOU! Today, use ALL your social media connections, followers, friends, etc. to tell them how GREAT your mother is or how GREAT someone else’s mother is – just talk about Mothers today – and use your social media power to “spread the word” and create massive WORD-OF-MOUTH about them. This would be a great use of social media – let me start…

My mother passed away a few years ago and I miss her. But she is not forgotten. I think about her often and the amazing part is when I think about her I remember all the great times we had and great things she did for me – thanks Mom! She was a foundation of who I am today and is a part of shaping my life. Every mother has this impact, good or bad, but today, remember the good…

My wife is AMAZING – that’s the simplest way I can put it. This blog would go on forever if I talked about all the greatness she possesses…and maybe it should! She is the “rock” for so many people and is one of those rare individuals who constantly cares more for everyone else than herself. Her love pours into everyone’s life and everyone is a better person for knowing her. Our kids are the luckiest on the planet! Sounds selfish but they are…Happy Mothers Day Lorrie…you are AWESOME.

My Mother-in-Law is simply wonderful – how many times do people get to say that! You never know when you fall in love what that is going to be like until you live it – I was truly blessed with GREAT in-laws. But I guess that goes to show the influence a mother has on their daughters – I married theirs and as I said above, she is amazing so I guess the foundation was laid long ago for turning out wonderful mothers in their family. Happy Mothers Day Valerie…you are AWESOME!

Now it’s your turn…tell everyone about your mom and other moms that have made a profound impact on your life – they deserve it today and your social network will be much better off than just knowing what YOU are doing today…unless its with mom!

0 Comments - Leave a comment! - Tags: Mother's Day, Passion, Sharing, Social Media, Word-of-Mouth

What scares Google to death?

Written on May 11, 2012 by Blaine Millet in "Pull" marketing, Customer Experience, Customer Experience 2.0, Customer Focused, Customer Loyalty, Helping, Market Differentiation, Relationships, ROI, Sales, WOM10, Word-of-Mouth, Word-of-Mouth Marketing

While I can’t profess to know the internal workings or conversations inside Google, I can tell you something that I know they are afraid of and it isn’t rocket science and it isn’t Bing either. Can you guess what this might be? I can tell you they are afraid of the same thing everyone else in business is afraid o – not being used or not being relevant.

Google’s dream is to have everyone use them to find people, places, and things. If you don’t know, “Google it” and you can find about anything and everything. And they have to absolutely love the fact that there are billions of pieces of new information entering the internet every year – that makes things harder to find and thus you need Google to cut through all this noise and find what you are looking for. This is how the search engine game is played and is well known to all of us – it is the standard. But there is another option for your business…

What if you could be found by your prospects and they never had to “Google you” to find you? What if you were found ahead of your competition regularly and you weren’t even on “Page One” of the results the search engines retrieved? What if you didn’t have to pay for all that SEO and you were still “top-of-mind” to your customers and prospects? Does any of this sound attractive?

This happens to a select group of businesses every day – it’s called “word-of-mouth” and is the most powerful way to get found without worrying about whether Google likes you or not. That’s because when someone tells someone else about you (either in person or online) they don’t say, “Oh, Bob at ZYX company is awesome and if you want it done right, just go to Google and search for Bob at ZYX Company.” No, what they do say is, Oh, Bob at ZYX company is awesome and if you want it done right, call Bob. You can find him at www.ZYXCompany.com and when you visit them online you can read their interesting stories as well.”

This makes Word-of-Mouth the most dangerous enemy to Google because in this situation, Google isn’t even in the equation when this occurs. If your audience doesn’t have to go to Google and search for you because they have the “exact URL”, they will bypass the search engines altogether. Because of the recommendation by your friend or colleague, this goes around the need for a search engine and directly to learning more about you and your product.

This scares Google to death – being cut out of loop of someone finding what they need without doing a “search for it.” Think about it…how many of your customers, partners, friends etc. are helping your current prospects bypass Google? If there isn’t a strategic process in your company to help your audience bypass Google, you are missing a huge opportunity and spending far more cash than needed on SEO when you might not even need to. Think about a new benchmark for your company; how to get more traffic direct to you and having your prospects spending less time on the internet searching for you…this is the FUTURE model for how social media can really drive more revenue while reducing costs – might be worth considering…

0 Comments - Leave a comment! - Tags: "Pull" Marketing, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, Helping, Mind Shift, Relationships, Social Media, Word-of-Mouth

USA Today suggests a choice…”Easy” or a “Relationship”

Written on May 2, 2012 by Blaine Millet in "Pull" marketing, "Push" marketing, Best Practices, Blogging, Breaking News, Customer Experience, Engagement, facebook, Helping, Market Differentiation, Relationships, Social Media, Storytelling, Uncategorized

I lost count of how many people either sent me or handed me a recent article in USA Today titled, “More companies quit blogging, go with Facebook instead.” There’s no mystery to why…they all know I am a HUGE fan of blogging and believe a blog represents the core of “engagement” in Social Media. So why are companies aborting blogging and moving to facebook, or twitter - did we miss the mark? Is blogging dead or dying? Is your blog a thing of the past because facebook is here to save the day? Rest assured, none of these are true…but let’s get below the surface and see what’s behind the USA Today article…

If you look at the numbers they discussed in the article, they say the number of blogging companies has dropped over the past year – as much as 13% from 50% and only 23% of the Fortune 500 companies had a blog in 2011. They also cite the statistic blogging dropped a whopping 2% in the 18 – 33 year old age group. But perhaps what was most interesting, is after they cited all these statistics, they said, “Blogging requires more investment. You need content regularly. And you need to think about the risk of blogging, accepting comments, liability issues, and defamation,” says Ganim Barnes, a professor at Dartmouth. They also added, “It’s a tool and content you own, which was a big benefit.”

When we dig a little deeper…the examples they cite are primarily B2C rather than B2B, but that’s OK. However, after all this talk of people aborting blogging, Lou Hoffman, CEO of The Hoffman Agency said something profound, “Many corporate blogs fail to attract readers because they exist solely to pitch products and are badly written! Companies don’t understand that the content on the blog shouldn’t be “about me” – such information tends to be dull.“ AMEN. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

In a world where there is more and stronger competition, pressure on prices, fewer customers, increased operating costs in all areas, wouldn’t you want to find a way to DIFFERENTIATE yourself and become more MEMORABLE than your competition? As a business strategist, this is the first thing I explore with a company. Having a blog that “helps your customers” instead of “Pimping your products” is a HUGE differentiator today! Being able to have a “dialog” on your blog with customers and others who are interested in how you can help them solve their own issues and problems makes more sense today than ever before. Companies saying they want to “turn off” blogs because they don’t want to deal with comments is just like telling your customers to stop talking to you and let you shove your information at them instead. Your customers are asking to have a dialog with you when you are not in front of them and talk in front of the world…what if they are saying great things about you???

My advice, STOP BLOGGING if you are set on wanting to “Push” content and “Pimp” yourself or your company! Lou was exactly right, why would anyone want to read more advertising being thrown at them over many “channels” (social media tools) when they didn’t really care about your brochure the first time? We need to get over ourselves. The customer doesn’t want to hear this from us. What they want to hear is how we can “HELP” them be better at what they do. I you can help them do this, they will “PULL” you, your content, and your blog into their world and THANK YOU for it! Anything else will fail – regardless of which tool you use. So I completely agree, if you are going to “Pimp” over the airwaves, don’t bother. And you might as well not write a blog because it is just more work producing something that won’t get read, so stop blogging!

If you decide you want to HELP your audience and give them content and stories and perspectives to grow their business, then the blog is absolutely, positively the best social media tool to communicate this to your audience. And if you’re still on the fence, just consider this final thought. Considering all the social media tools available to a business today, if your customer wanted to SHARE something with a prospective customer, would you rather have them share a bunch of stories you have written that would help their business or 140 characters? Answer the question from your own perspective, “what would YOU want to get?” I think you just found the answer to whether or not you should blog…

0 Comments - Leave a comment! - Tags: "Pull" Marketing, "Push" Marketing, Best Practices, Blogging, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, Engage, Helping, Market Differentiation, Relationships, Social Media, Stories

Dear CEO – I surrender – you WIN…

Written on April 1, 2012 by Blaine Millet in Humor

OK – after giving over 500 speeches and consulting with numerous clients in the area of Social Media and Word-of-Mouth, I surrender, you win! Social Media IS the biggest time suck and waste of time ever created and as a business you should wait it out and wait for it to go away. I got…

0 Comments - Leave a comment! - Tags: April Fools Day

“Promises” – still the foundation…

Written on March 16, 2012 by Blaine Millet in "Pull" marketing, Advocacy, Business Strategy, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, Promise-Driven Organizations, Promises, Relationships, Trust, Trusted Relationships, WOM on Steroids, Word-of-Mouth

This week I was in a discussion with a new client about their business strategy and how we were going to help them integrate social media to help them build more word-of-mouth and sales – a conversation I have all the time – but this time it hit me and reminded me of something that…