Open The Dialogue

Accompanied by the level of detail you’d expect from two Forrester analysts, Groundswell lays out case after case of strategies, rationales and insight that show either the groundswell in action or how a yet to be tapped community can be moved to create that groundswell.

The authors begin by laying out why it’s important to know what the groundswell is capable of. After all it’s often made up of customers or employees, two groups that are infinitely more valuable to a business’ success than whomever is occupying the CMO chair this week. These groups have the tools – in the form of message boards, blogs, social networks and more – to influence others either positively or negatively based on their experiences with your brand, product or staff.

From there Bernoff and Li go into tactics to turn existing groundswells to the advantage of the company, and that’s the central tenet of the rest of the book. After explaining what the groundswell can do for or to your business they then provide strategies, advice and tactics on how to know what’s being said, contribute to the conversation in a meaningful manner and energize the people who live in the groundswell.

Each chapter takes a slightly different tack on this, which makes it easy for brand marketers or others to find the section of the most relevance to what they need to accomplish and see what others have done by way of case studies and benefit from the authors’ thinking along these specific lines.

While much of the research that goes into the thinking that drives Groundswell is only alluded to or conveyed via quotes from others at Forrester, Bernoff and Li (and the firm as a whole) also use their Social Technographics Profile as a central – and publicly available – resource. That tool allows you to see, based on Forrester research, whether a particular demographic is filled more with Creators, Critics, Collectors or any of the other distinct groups the firm has identified. This tool informs the vast majority of the book so it’s good to familiarize yourself with the labels it uses and the data behind it in order to get the most out of the book itself.

Groundswell is one of those books that should be included in every corporate communications professional’s Christmas stocking. There may be marketing people out there who still think online engagement with consumers or other groups isn’t worth it but they won’t feel that way after reading the book. Instead they’ll likely be scared into some sort of action.

And that’s why Groundswell also needs to be read by the people lower down the ladder. When someone comes to them saying the company needs to create a Facebook application “NOW!” they need to be able to keep the analytical mindset exemplified by Li and Bernoff and ask simple but hard questions like “But is that where are customers are?” Doing so – and having the data to back up their questions – will save a lot of wasted time and money.

Groundswell is recommended without qualification.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 12:00 PM | Permalink

I really hope you haven’t come here looking for an impartial, objective review of Joseph Jaffe’s latest scre... um... manife... um... tira... book “Join the Conversation.” If you have I hate to break it to you but you’re going to be more than a little disappointed. I’m a fan of Jaffe’s blog, of the client programs he’s put together and his previous book, Life After the 30-Second Spot.

Join the Conversation picks up more or less right where LA30SS left off, with a loud and clear call for marketing professionals to leave the past behind them and begin thinking differently in order to adapt to a world where traditional tactics don’t have the same impact they once did. In the previous book that call was focused on moving beyond the existing commercial formats and doing more to reach people in a targeted manner with messages that were relevant for them at a time that was convenient for them. Instead of “here’s when we’re speaking and all of you better pay attention now because I’m only going to say this 68 more times” he wanted marketers to go out with messaging that said “I know you’re busy but it seems like now might be a good time for us to chat because I think you’re going to like this.”

In JtC, though, Jaffe takes it to the next level and pushes marketing professionals to actually get down in the muck – he often uses the “ivory tower” as the marketer’s preferred environment – and talk with the customers. That requires a drastic shift in thinking because customers, both current and potential, are usually treated as idiots to be talked TO and certainly not WITH.

But, and this shouldn’t be a shocking point of view to readers here or most other places, engaging in meaningful discussions with members of the buying public has the upside of showing what’s working and what’s not, even if what they have to say deviates from the key messages the corporate team decided on.

It doesn’t even have to be direct dialogue that occurs, as Jaffe points out. Sometimes it’s as simple as sponsoring a platform people are already using to connect with other like-minded individuals. Sometimes it’s soliciting feedback, even if it’s anonymous in nature. His point, and it’s a good one, is that it’s time to listen more and talk less because people have a voice (through blogs, social networks, podcasts or other tools) and the means to amplify that voice (RSS feeds, friends updates, search results) so knowing what’s being said is more important than ever before

In addition to being filled with plenty of instances and case studies that help to flesh out and prove his point, Jaffe’s very writing style should not be overlooked. It’s very conversational and natural, very much like he wrote this in the same manner he speaks. In fact, as with LA30SS, the enjoyment of the book (I laughed more times than I’ll admit here) is increased if you’ve met him or listen to his Jaffe Juice (nee Across the Sound) podcast. If you haven’t I highly recommend doing so.

Join the Conversation is a natural for anyone working in this industry or field and is recommended without reservation.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Andy Sernovitz has written a book that, quite frankly, everyone should read. I don't care if you're in marketing, human resources, customer service or are a C-level executive, Word of Mouth Marketing has something for you

What Sernovitz has done is break down word-of-mouth-marketing into its core components, and he's done so in a way that doesn't use a lot of – or any, really – industry jargon or inside jokes. What he does do is make it clear that word of mouth about your company, regardless of size, location, demographic or product offerings, is already being generated. Whether you had anything to do with that or not is almost secondary. The conversation is happening. Sernovitz makes it clear that you have two options when it comes to this pre-existing conversation. You can either join in and make sure that you're reaping all the benefits that come with that or ignore it and not participate, in which case you will pay the costs (and they can be significant) such an aloof stance can result in.

But oh, what benefits Sernovitz dangles in front of you. Reputation management, increased buzz and other such prizes await those who know how, as he puts it, to enable the talkers, seed the conversation and otherwise encourage people to talk about the company. He's not talking about paid or massively coordinated word-of-mouth campaigns. While there might be a place for them (I'm not a fan but some people swear by them) the tactics Sernovitz puts out there for use are low cost (often free) and are all about keeping the conversation authentic by energizing people who are already doing the talking without tainting the process with money

The tactics and suggestions Sernovitz lays out aren't likely to be embraced by people who still believe that the professionals are the only ones who should be controlling the message, thank you very much. Nor is this something that's going to be an easy sell to higher-ups who demand that things fit nicely int a spreadsheet or slide-deck. He does give some ways to make word-of-mouth fit into those calculations but at the end of the day WOM is still going to be fuzzier than old-media ad buying and flier printing.

While much of the book focuses on how WOM is being enabled to an unprecedented degree by the ease of online publishing, Sernovitz makes it clear that offline conversations are just as important. He gives example after example on how to identify who is or can be doing your talking for you, both in the real world as well as online.

There's an idea that I think I first read from Joseph Jaffe that the best advertising in the world will be completely destroyed by a bad user-experience and that flashy ads can actually build up expectations that are destined to be dashed by that experience. Sernovitz takes the same attitude when he makes it clear that one of the chief ways to enable and encourage positive word-of-mouth is to train customer service staff members on ways to encourage people to spread the word themselves. As an example he cites a study that shows that people who hear about a friend's bad experience somewhere are five times as likely to not use that company again as the person who actually had that experience. If everyone of your bad customer experiences is leading to a five-fold loss of revenue you need to start brainstorming ways right now on how to improve the interactions between the company and the customer.

Let me give you an example of how much Sernovitz gets what he's preaching. Last week I read a post by Mack Collier where he was crowing about an advance review copy of Word of Mouth Marketing he had gotten. (What Mack was actually doing was exactly what Mack does and Andy knew he would do - talk about innovative marketing) I dropped a comment basically just busting in a friendly way on Mack for how “important” he was getting that he was getting such a treat. 20 minutes later Sernovitz IM'd me asking for my mailing address so he could send me a copy. He got that I was, as he calls it, a “talker” and that sending me a book was a small cost for the potential word of mouth it could generate.

Before I finish up, let me share one quote with you that I feel sums up Sernovitz's arguments quite well as serves, I think, as kind of a foundation for the entire idea of genuine, consumer-driven word-of-mouth:

"Word of mouth is so effective because of the natural credibility that comes from real people with no profit or agenda tied to their recommendations. It's those "people like us" whom we look for and listen to."

I can't recommend Word of Mouth Marketing enough. It's a wonderful compilation of all the “walk with your community” and “enable the community” ideas that so many of us in the marketing and PR world have been espousing for so long. And coming from Sernovitz, who's the president of the Word or Mouth Marketing Association, it has a level of authority that hopefully can break through the reluctance of those who don't know how to embrace such radical – but effective – ideas.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)