Here’s a summary of our discussion:

Random House | The Building Blocks of a Successful WOM Platform

Through its “Random Buzzers” online community platform, Random House is facilitating conversations between the publisher, authors, and Millennial readers. In this session, you’ll not only learn the mechanics behind this program (2010 Gold WOMMY Award Winner), but also find answers to questions like; How do I best utilize a ‘Give to Get’ philosophy to drive WOM? How can I sell that concept internally? How can brands act cross-functionally to maximize consumer experience and program ROI? How do I employ segmentation strategies to optimize engagement? What are optimal content development and frequency strategies? How important are engagement incentives? How can I report on and measure online and offline WOM?

Visit the School of WOM site for more information as well as registration details. Hope you can make it!

I refer to these concepts as Social Referrals and Social SEO – two related, but very different concepts that any social marketer needs to understand:

Social Referrals:

Traffic to your site via content and/or links posted on social outposts such as Facebook and Twitter by yourself and others.

Social Referrals are driven by a combination of brand-driven referrals (posting a link to your Twitter/Facebook accounts), amplified sharing (consumer retweets), and via built-in sharing tools tied to content on your site.

For many companies (especially those with constantly fresh/dynamic content such as news sites and blogs), social referral traffic has risen to probably the #2 or #3 source of referral traffic (behind organic search and any online advertising).

Types of Social Referral Content:

• Breaking News (people share this quickly because they want to be the first to ‘break’ this to their friends)
• Viral Content, such as a funny video or photo (sharing this via Facebook/Twitter is considered ok/non-intrusive versus through email)
• Online Coupons/Sales/Offers (what can I say, people love free/discounted stuff!)
• Interesting/Informative Stories/Blog Posts (again, this content acts as social currency for the person sharing it, making them look good/in-the-know – the reality is, many people share this sort of content without even fully-reading the article! I’m as guilty as anyone else)

Social referrals tend to have a very short shelf life, and while true, some of the major search engines are starting to index them, their “relevancy” value in the eyes of search engines diminishes quickly.

Social SEO:

Traffic to your site via search engines, based on consumer-generated content relevancy to keywords.

Social SEO is a side benefit of facilitating user-generated content on your company’s website. For example, consumers aren’t necessarily seeking out information on, let’s say, a bottle of Redwood Creek wine. But, what if the brand has a thriving consumer community of outdoor enthusiasts who love to post/share BBQ and campfire recipes? Over time, the relevancy of that content trickles up the search engine ranks, and eventually can work it’s way to the top! We refer to this valuable, relevant, organic, indexable content as “Google Juice“.

Next, you’ve connected with this consumer based on their interest, while introducing your brand to them in the context of that interest. Not only will they find the user-generated content they discovered as relevant and informative, but they may in turn go on to become a part of your community to connect with other like-minded folks.

(note: Social SEO only truly works if you have also implemented proper search engine optimization techniques into your website, i.e., title, meta tags, <h1>/<h2> html tags, etc.)

Types of Social SEO Content

• User-Submitted reviews, recipes, photos/videos (with proper meta info)
• Forum Posts/Discussions/Knowledge Bases
• Comments
• User Profiles

The value of Social SEO builds over time, since this content acts as a permanent archive/repository. It also creates a “long-tail” of relevant content, as each piece of UGC becomes in itself an SEO landing page. This makes it easy to measure/learn  what types of content drive the most search engine referral traffic.

Measuring the Impact of Social Referrals and Social SEO

If you are not measuring (both quantitatively and qualitatively) the impact of Social Referrals and Social SEO , you are leaving out a large component of the Social ROI equation! Some examples include:

• Short term traffic bumps (Social Referrals), long term traffic growth trend (Social SEO)
• Increase in engagement metrics, time on site, etc.
• Community registrations, email signups, fan/follower acquisition
• Coupon redemption/conversion to sales/transactions
• CRM insights (do social referrals result in larger/more frequent purchases? Are community members who joined via Social SEO more active/engaged than others?)
• Insights into consumer interests/needs and where your brand is resonating/standing out (i.e., wine + campfire/BBQ recipes = brand positioning)
• Customer support savings (consumers solving own problems via locating answers provided by other consumers on your community/knowledge base)

Let’s me finish by asking you a question – how did you come across this blog post? Was it via a link someone tweeted or a Google search result? Drop me a line or leave a comment below if you’d like to discuss/debate further!

This lack of integrated strategy is largely a result of two factors:

• the experimentation encouraged in Steve Rubel’s Digital Embassy strategy
• the relative ease involved with launching a presence

On the surface an integrated approach seems ideal but ultimately it must be driven by the key objective.  An Embassy strategy works well if you’re building up natural search results or brand awareness but not so well if you’re objective is customer acquisition and deeper relationships with customers.  Without integration, there’s no clear path for the consumer to take the casual relationship to a deeper one.

As I started writing I realized there was a good amount to cover, so instead of tackling this topic all in one go, I figured I’d break it into three manageable chunks.  Next up will be working through the various integration opportunities and reviewing the potential road blocks.

Tip #1: Motivation

If you are truly starting “from scratch,” with no existing customers (let alone an existing CRM system or even an email list), you’ll need to think about what will motivate a group of consumers to want to learn about your new product or service. Consider the use of an incentive to attract a group of prospective consumers. An incentive could be tangible (free T-shirt, entry into a sweepstakes), or intangible (the chance to help test out a new product, the opportunity to interact directly with product developers and like-minded consumers). Think about the type of consumer you are trying to attract and what they would value (what would wealthy middle-aged men care about more – a free T-shirt, or some frequent-flier miles?) You can build an experience around your product or service by providing an exclusive online community to allow these like-minded consumers to interact and share in the experience.

(Note that at this point you are not “rewarding” word of mouth; the up-front incentive is simply a way to get consumers to “hear you out.” They shouldn’t be obligated to do anything beyond this step. The consumers who stick around are the ones who truly want to learn more, be engaged and become product experts.)

Tip #2: Education

Discovery is a key element in triggering conversations. People want to be “in the know” – education provides them with “social currency,” since they will have valuable information/knowledge that their peers do not. Education also allows you to articulate your key selling points and better ensure that they are accurately passed along. Quizzes are a great way to engage and interactively educate your consumers. If you have a prototype/beta version of your product, provide a set of testing instructions and solicit feedback through the use of surveys.

Tip #3: Co-creation

The best way to develop an emotional bond between consumers and your brand is to involve them in the process as early as possible. Activities such as providing feedback on packaging and marketing materials, helping come up with names and taglines, or submitting photos documenting brand interaction or product use are just a few examples. Provide ways for consumers to show off (and share) their creativity and newfound passion, and gain recognition for their work. Encourage them to make it “their” product. Consumer-generated content is a valuable by-product of co-creation and can build awareness for your product or service months in advance of any traditional advertising initiatives.

Tip #4: Anticipation

As you approach product/brand launch, you should have a group of passionate consumers who have developed a strong emotional connection to your product (in some cases, without having actually used or experienced it!). Continue to feed their passion – continue to involve them in product testing, chats with product managers and developers, first-look sneak peeks and insider information. The trick is to release information in “bite-size chunks” – enough to feed their enthusiasm over a period of time and reinforce your selling points, but not so much as to overwhelm them.

Tip #5: Recommendation

Congratulations – your new product or service has launched! This passionate group of people you have fostered are no longer “consumers” – they are your customers. Treat them well; they are your early adopters and evangelists. They will be the ones sharing their enthusiasm for your new product or service (chances are they have already been doing so for quite some time).

Publicly acknowledge and provide these customers with special status in your customer community since they have been with you from the beginning. Be on a first-name basis with these customers. Invite them to special events. Send them birthday cards.

Lastly, don’t consider this the end of your WOM “campaign” – consider it the beginning of your long-lasting WOM program!

I would also like to thank all of our clients old and new who have believed in us, as well as everyone on our team who continue to amaze me by coming up with innovative ways for companies to engage, empower and connect their most passionate consumers.

See you at 200!