[Welcome back to the You Can Be a Word of Mouth Marketing Supergenius! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]
Your biggest fans are the talkers you can turn to when you’ve got something new you want the world to know about or when you need feedback from a loyal group you can trust — and great word of mouth marketers know exactly who they are. Three ways to find yours:
1> Ask them to take action
2> Let them identify themselves
3> Get out and meet them
1> Ask them to take action
The fastest way to find out who really cares about you and your cause is to ask them to take action. People are busy and overloaded as it is — so anyone who takes the time to volunteer at your event, make a donation, or opt in to your special newsletter is a passionate follower. Give the people who step up your extra attention, they’re the ones most likely to start conversations.
2> Let them identify themselves
Where do your fans that have written songs about you and have tattoos on their arms go to show off their love? Shiner is doing it with BockLove.com, where they’re inviting fans to upload videos, audio recordings, photos, and stories about their love for their beer. Not everyone who buys Shiner’s beer goes and posts something, but that’s not the point — it’s to give the big fans a place to go and meet others like them (and for Shiner to get to know them all).
3> Get out and meet them
If you want to meet your true die-hard fans, sometimes it’s best to go out and take a walk in their shoes. It’s simple things, like greeting the fans who are waiting out in the cold to be the first to buy your stuff. You can meet your biggest fans by going to the geeky trade shows, stopping by the local meet-ups, and paying attention to who’s showing up at the grand openings. ?
