Social Networks, Influencers, and Word of Mouth

This is part four in our series on Getting Word of Mouth Marketing to Work for You. Be sure to check out part one, part two, and part three to get caught up!

Word of mouth marketing is by nature a social activity. Its no wonder then that it lends itself so well to the social networks we form.

Whether it be physical or virtual networks, business or for pleasure, understanding the dynamics of the social network is imperative to word of mouth success.

Blending Networks

The lines between online networks and offline networks are fairly ambiguous. Day to day interactions continue as online conversations and vice versa. Your focus cannot be on one or the other, but needs to encompass both.

Online Networks

• Forums

• Review sites

• Social networks – Twitter, Facebook, etc

• Blogs

• Fan sites

Physical Networks

• In person, face to face

• Clubs

• Meetups

• Community organizations

• More commonly, informal communication by peer groups

These are the places your conversations are taking place, and it should be the goal of the word of mouth marketer to engage these groups to talk about what you are doing.

Setting the Stage for Conversation

You can use the same techniques we discussed yesterday to build buzz with the groups, but only after you’ve taken the time to:

Listen:

• Engaging them in open, unfiltered conversation

• Promptly and honestly responding to their concerns

• Valuing customer opinion, whether it is positive, negative, or neutral

Engage the community:

• Identify the influencers

• Educate people about your products

• Make your product/message easily shareable

• Manage buzz blockers, in this case listen to the conversations and engage the supporters, answer the detractors, and convert the neutrals.

Once you’ve listened, your focus shifts to engaging them and specifically engaging the key influencer’s of the group.

The Role of the Influencer

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association defines an influencer as:

“A person who has a greater than average reach or impact through word of mouth in a relevant marketplace.”

10% of consumers influence the other 90% of buyers. You want to connect with those 10% – the influencers.

How do you Find the Influencers?

Influencers usually rise to the top of any discussion, they stick out, that’s why people listen to what they say and do what they do.

Some are well known on a large scale, but influencers exists in the smallest of networks too. Think about your groups of friends – who’s the leader?  That’s an influecner to your peer group as much as any celebrity or expert.

Online and off you will need to really listen to your customers, think about trends, and identify who they are following and in what networking format.

What do you Want Them to Do?

You want to create a relationship between the influencer, yourself, or your products in the hopes they talk about you.  They are not there to promote for you, your product will promote itself and they will talk about it naturally with their groups and “followers”.

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The larger scale of the influencer the bigger you’re going to have to go to get their attention.

Audi recently gave Guy Kawasaki a new R8 sports car to drive for a few weeks in hopes he would blog about it. They knew he was an influencer, and one with exceptional reach in online social networks.

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Approach your influencers with a value exchange. What are they getting, and what do you hope to get in return? Guy got a free car for a couple days, and that was enough value to get him to talk about it on his blog. If Audi had of offered him a $500 rebate on the car, do you think he would have talked about it?

Remember

The same rules apply with influencers as with any word of mouth marketing, you’ll want to be sure you are implementing the 3 pillars of success we talked about in part 1 of this series. 

Have great content – Make it shareable – Call to Action

Managing the Conversation

As you engage the social networks, and make contacts and relationships with the groups influencers you will need to manage the conversation. How do you manage the conversation? The same way you deal with negative buzz:

• Listen to the conversations and engage the supporters, answer the detractors, and convert the neutrals.

• Remember, negative conversations can be a big learning opportunity. If negativity comes from a consumer who has yet to try your product or service, see if you can get it in their hands. If they’ve tried you and just don’t like you, drill into the “why”. Possibly they aren’t representative of your target market, or maybe you have a flaw in your product of delivery model. Both can be learned from and approved upon as you move forward.

Putting it all Together

Social networks are a blend of online and offline communication. This communication is happening naturally, and thus lends itself well to word of mouth marketing.

Your job is to find the social networks your consumers live in, listen to the conversations they are having, and then engage them in talking about your products and services by using the techniques we discussed in building the buzz.

Your focus in the social networks should be around finding the key influencers, that 10% who influence the group, and getting them interacting with what you are selling.

Influencers are your business partners. Approach them not as a person there to promote you, but as someone you want on your side to help you spread the word.

You last step is to manage the conversations, while drawing upon some of the buzz building techniques to keep it headed in the right direction.

Up Next:

Elements in a Successful Word of Mouth Campaign

• Social media’s role – Getting viral

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Photo Credit:  sml!

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