At last weeks Word of Mouth Marketing Summit 2008, we had a great session on how different brands sell-in word of mouth and social media programs within their organizations. We had three great speakers:
- Linda Saindon from Kraft
- Kevin Dando from PBS
- David Armano from Critical Mass
Each shared their 5 key insights or learnings from their various experiences. Linda is a driving force behind the recently launched Kraft First Taste which is a community of brand enthusiasts interested in trying product and sharing about it.
Kevin works across mutliple program strands via his involvement in the PBS Engage team. This group serves as a social media skunkworks for pbs.org and has driven a ton of experimentation.
David Armano works for multiple brands and has a way with visualizations. I wanted him there not just because he does work on real social media-based programs for major clients but also because of the infographics he puts out. These are all meant to help explain and communicate social media concepts. they ultimately help sell-in (see one below).
You can watch the video of the session above. My intro is too long - sorry about that. Note to self: shorter & less pacing back and forth....
Here are the points each built on:
Selling-in social media:
Kevin Dando - PBS
- Give producers an experience with blogger outreach and they will get hooked
- Example: PBS’ Guest Blog (Remotely Connected). There were all sorts of fears about all aspects of social media including reaching out to bloggers and having them post about something that interested them. Once Kevin ran a program where they got some postings and the producers saw that the sky didn't fall, they became hooked.
- Be manic about discovery -- unbelievably important, and sometimes overlooked
- Search Engine Optimization – Metrics: Facebook talks to YouTube, which talks with…..
- A great (and free) starter tool -- http://www.xinureturns.com/ (to measure popularity, page rank, etc.)
- Seek counsel in unexpected places.
- PBS employee briefings turned into rich sources of information.
David Armano - Critical Mass
- Have A Strategy
- Start Small
- Don’t Just Tell, Show
- Prototype, Then Test In Real Time
- Define Measurement (ROI meets Return On Insight)
Linda Saindon - Kraft
- Consider co-creation
Enroll consumers and organizational stakeholders when creating your program. These groups will tell you what they’re most interested in and what’s important from a marketing and measurement perspective. - Accountability counts
Measurement is key--it will help demonstrate the impact and value of your program. Start developing your own set of benchmarks. Execute, measure, report, repeat! - Keep it simple
Test and learn on a small scale with a focused program to find out what works for you. Be nimble and fine tune as you go. - Make it customized
Develop your WOM program with a specific consumer segment and marketing objective in mind. Be disciplined versus executing WOM for WOM sake. Some questions to ask are:
Who is my targeted consumer group and why?
How is my consumer willing to engage with my product or service?
What is the basis for conversation? - Educate the organization
It’s important to educate your organization about results as well as how your program fits into the broader context of WOM marketing and Web 2.0 landscape.
MM
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