Building Buzz by Being Buzz Worthy

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

To realize the true potential word of marketing can have for your business it’s important to not have consumers just talking about you.

You want them literally buzzing about your products and services!

To Buzz Is Natural…

Humans are programed to share information, to connect and communicate with each other. We do so for a variety of reasons, from self serving “bragging” to seeking advice or gossiping its all part of the interactions we do everyday to maintain our social network.

This natural communication is good news from the perspective of a word of mouth campaign.  To get consumers to talk about your product, really all you need to do is give them a reason to and then spur them along to do what they are going to do already – talk.

…And You’ll Give Them Something to Buzz About

Your job when building buzz is to accelerate natural communication. Play into the fact that your market will be talking anyway, so they may as well be talking about you! Knowing what makes you buzz worthy, and playing into that will help you start their conversations and keep them buzzing.

The intention of today’s discussion is not to tell you step by step what to do in order to build buzz for your specific product, but to get you thinking about the elements that go into creating buzz and then applying them to your unique situation.

Where do Your Customers Live? What do They Value?

The first order of business when building buzz is to figure out where your customers live – where do they converse. This will shape how you approach them to get them talking about you.  Are they talking face to face, or in forums on the internet.  Writing reviews online, or in emails to friends. Are they doing all of these things simultaneously?  Find out where and how they are communicating and only then can you shape those communications.

Next, what do they value? Does your target market value peer approval, or is there an element of being an outsider they identify with.  Nothing will kill buzz quicker than getting this wrong.

How to Start the Conversation

Have a stellar product. Provide top notch service.

It all starts with this, no easy way around it. If somebody else does what you do better than you – I’m talking about them, not you.

Get In Their Hands and Heads

If your product and services rock, you can’t afford not to give it away for free.  Get what you do in front of them. Get them to use it, experience, and love it.

In order to stimulate buzz you have to get your products and services in the hands of your users. First hand experience is much stronger than explaining benefits, and translates better to further communication on their part.

Giving it away also eliminates the biggest barrier between you and the customer – cost. Lowering the cost can work in some instances to get them trying your product, but free is still the best price of all. If nothing else they will talk about how cool it was they got something for nothing.

Reward Customers for Talking About You

Build in a referral reward system; make it worth their while to talk about you. Make this reward big enough to get their attention. Discounts, more free products, what ever the incentive may be the key here is to reward their “good” performance. Good performance in this case is spreading the word about what you are doing. Not only are we motivated by getting more free stuff, or discounts, it lets the consumer know it is okay for them to share with their friends about you.

The bigger you go with this the more buzz you will generate. Think about this – which am I more likely to talk about 1) Getting a 5% rebate from the car dealership by referring 10 friends to check out their cars or 2) Getting a FREE car if I refer 10 people who end up buying!

The reward referral system needs to make good financial sense, so think it through. But, in the example above if I make 500% more by selling 10 cars and giving one away for free, then it’s time to start giving away cars.

Use Social Proof Techniques

Once you’ve got the product out there, you should begin to use social proof techniques to bolster the message.  Simply put social proof means that people are more likely to do, and continue to do, what they see other people doing. So by the sheer fact that consumers are using what you provide, having positive interactions, and talking about you will get others to do the same.  If you drive by a restaurant that is packed and next door is an empty restaurant – which one do you determine to have better food?

You can use the social proof phenomenon to your advantage by publicizing as much as possible that people dig what you do. Testimonials, positive reviews, lines out your front door will all serve as social proof that you rock – use it!

What are the Buzz Blockers?

Once you’ve got your product and service to your market. They love what you are doing, and they are engaged in talking about it and referring you to others, your focus shifts to keeping the conversation going.  The following are the most common buzz blockers, and understanding the drivers of each will go a long way in helping you overcome them.

Typically buzz blockers include consumer distractions, forgetfulness, negative buzz, and time lapse.  Let’s look at each.

Consumer Distraction

Consumers are bombarded daily with messages from businesses who want their money. While it may seem interesting for a while to try something new, or branch out, when faced with sensory overload consumers will retreat to what they know.

They Forget

That’s right, sometimes consumers will just plain forget about you and what you are doing. They are busy people, with busy lives, and you may not be at the top of the mind. Not because you’ve got an inferior product, it just slips their mind.

Negative Buzz

Some people will be bad mouthing you, it’s just going to happen. Negative buzz can spread, studies show not quite as quick as positive buzz, but it can stunt your campaign.

Time Lapse

Eventually you will be faced with the reality that for your product or service the buzz has run its course. This could be due to shifting priorities and values of your target market, or due to a more natural shift from “new and exciting” to “tried and true”. Also over time the consumer will run out of people to tell. In their social circles there will no longer be the opportunity to spread the word.

Keeping the Momentum Up – Overcoming the Buzz Blockers

Momentum will have a lot to do with you. Are you following up with customers, asking them how they are liking what you are doing, reminding them about your services, and monitoring/tweaking your referral and reward program?  You should be. Building buzz, and keeping the momentum is not a “set it and forget it” endeavor.  Remind your customers why you rock, and why they should be talking about you in the first place. Let social proof “prove” your case.

What to do About Negative Buzz

Any negative buzz you receive should be looked at as an 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 – making you more efficient and buzz worthy.

You’ll also want to use this as an opportunity to reinforce the positive buzz you are getting. Negative buzz should account for a small percentage of the total conversation, make sure they happy customers know that, or the laws of social proof will work against you.

Putting it all Together

In order for buzz to work you’ll need to get to the places your target market does its talking, and we’ll talk more about specific strategies to infiltrate those conversations in follow up’s to this series.

From there you’ll let your stellar product, or exceptional service start the buzz ball rolling by getting it in the hands of your consumers. They need to feel it, experience it, and love it before they can talk about it and recommend it to their friends.

Once they begin to talk you’ll build in systems to reward them for doing this, understanding the bigger the reward the more they will talk and the louder the buzz will be.

Lastly, as this cycle plays out you’ll be monitoring the buzz and doing your best to overcome the buzz blockers by reinforcing your message, tweaking your reward programs, and using social proof to your advantages.

The goal in getting buzz about your products and services is to use what humans do naturally, communicate, to work for spreading the word about what you’re selling. You are only spurring those conversations by encouraging them to talk about and recommend you.

Up Next:

Elements in a Successful Word of Mouth Campaign
•    Understanding social networks
•    Using the influencer
•    Social media’s role

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Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk