Accelerating Word of Mouth in the Online World

If you haven’t read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell buy it right now.  If you have read it then you know Gladwell talks about the mechanism that makes an idea “sticky” using examples from Paul Revere’s famous ride to the resurgence of Hush Puppies. Most of us would love to accelerate the speed our core messages travel via word of mouth. Sometimes called a viral campaign (usually by marketers who want to charge more with a sexier term that means the same thing) word of mouth marketing programs can yield spectacular results. Most of the time they fail because we’re too busy.I’ve included a few articles that describe in more detail some of the actual channels you’ll use. But here are a few tips to get started. Pick one or two of these things or try them all. They’re easy to implement. 1.    Hire an intern or a virtual assistant (VA) to conduct the campaign. I love interns because they’re usually in their early 20’s and are much more familiar with the medium. VA’s that are online savvy often have the experience from other clients. (You think I do more than just write this? I’ve got Vickie Barker of Full Service Virtual Support as my secret weapon. And yes, she’s taking new clients.) And they work from home.2.    Sign up for an account at PRWeb and send short 200 word advisories every 6 weeks. Who cares what it’s about! (Maybe Gwyneth Paltrow’s second cousin once removed just bought your product.) PRWeb is a great way to get your message moving. Want an example of a campaign we’re doing right now? Google the words “lifemoxie top 25”. 3.    Make a list of your favorite bloggers. These should be ones that deal with topics in your industry. Post an innocuous - or brilliant if you’re inspired - comment on once a week. You don’t need your own blog. Comments on blogs get the benefit of SEO too. Comment to a blog on the Huffington Post – that’s the fifth most read news media in the country. And it’s a WEBSITE.4.    Set up a MySpace page, a Facebook page and get LinkedIn if you’re not already. Have your VA or intern do it. Cost will be from $13 to $20 bucks per hour. You don’t need fancy videos either.5.    Maybe you want to try for something a little more creative? Do a sweepstakes. There’s one going on a Femail Creations that has customers uploading videos talking about “how much they love Femail” to YouTube and the winner will get a $1000 shopping spree. Not only do we promote the contest but the customers are doing commercials for the company online. Brilliant!6.    Take every newsletter article you’ve ever written and submit it to the online article directories. You can email me for a list of those if you like. Soon your name and message will be blasted across hundreds of site.7.    Measure your results with google alerts for your company name, your name and any combination of the two.  (If you’re already doing this, try setting alerts for news items that have to do with your business too) You’ll get some junk, but you’ll see when your name or company name is mentioned anywhere. Finally remember chat rooms and discussion boards are great places to talk about your product. But don’t be salesy. If you’re going to pop into those provide some valid input. Also, don’t “ghost.” Ghosting is when a company uses an alias to participate in a discussion and sway the opinions. The CEO of Whole Foods just got caught doing that. On the other hand, if your product is for younger folks, you can pay some interns to work those discussion boards and chat rooms for you. For some reason teens and 20-somethings that are “paid ambassadors” are welcome on those sites. All of these things can easily be done by an intern or virtual assistant. They could even be a good job for your computer savvy kid.