Word of Mouth Promotion in the Time of Social Media
Word of mouth promotion has always been effective, perhaps the most effective, primarily because it is ubiquitous- everywhere we go we talk to each other, we talk about the things we do and the best and worst experiences we have. Word of mouth promotion is a natural fit for social media. Word of mouth promotion is one of the cornerstones of any successful event, company or business that makes is last. And the social media manifestation of that word of mouth promotion isn’t something you can control outright- but it’s not something you have to just sit back and watch, either.
Here are 5 Tips for…
Word of Mouth Promotion in the Time of Social Media
1. Seed: If you have an event or a new product launch coming up, don’t just put out the same old ads and hope that people will start saying something good about it. Go out there and tweet some messaging, create taglines and put them in Facebook ads, and get people you know to make genuine videos talking about their excitement or demonstrating the product for YouTube.
2. Incentivize: Nothing primes the word of mouth promotion pump like giving something away for free. Offer discounts if people make videos, or if they post messaging to their twitter account or their Facebook page. Include this in some kind of street team marketing and you’ve got an instant branding extension from offline to online and back again.
3. Video: Video is an emerging social media trend for 2010, and it is becoming more and more common for people to have a smartphone and make quick videos. This is the word of mouth promotion dream- Give people a place to put their videos and then encourage them to make them through seeding and incentives.
4. Highlight: Once you have word of mouth promotion chatter going, highlight the messages you like best. Contact people and thank them- put their messages or videos on your website- give them real world recognition and it will only generate even more word of mouth promotion.
5. Reward: Just before your event, announce a reward for the people who have been part of the word of mouth promotion effort- they will be certain to talk about it, and it solidifies their participation.
In the end, word of mouth promotion will take on a life of its own, but while you can’t control it, you can plant the seeds and guide it, especially in the modern era of social media.
Word of mouth promotion, Scott
