This is a guest post from Andy Sernovitz — CEO of WordofMouth.org and SocialMedia.org and New York Times best-selling author of “Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking.”
Some of the best word of mouth stories are about blenders, men’s health, and billing software. A great topic — attached to any great product — can start amazing word of mouth. Here’s why:
There are tons of remarkable ways to show off your stuff
For Blendtec, it’s their “Will It Blend?” series. They made a blender product demo something worth talking about. And it’s not just about showing off how awesome their blenders are — it also shared something outrageous everyone would share with their friends. (Who doesn’t want to see what happens when you blend an iPhone?)
The right talkers can make anything exciting
For Movember, it was the men who took up their goofy moustache challenge. They turned a topic most men avoid, men’s health, into an awareness campaign they could literally wear on their face. They knew how to get the right talkers involved and how to give them an approachable message to share.
You can make word of mouth a part of everything you do
For Freshbooks, a billing software company, it’s just about doing a whole bunch of buzzworthy things. Things like taking an RV from Miami to Austin and meeting customers for every meal along the way, or mailing me some mustard from Toronto I wrote about in a blog post.
It’s all about doing tons of little remarkable acts of word of mouth that add up to lots of conversations, even things that weren’t directly tied to the business.
Go for it
Blending iPhones, growing facial hair, and sending mustard to bloggers might not work for you. But something will — there’s a topic for everyone. To find it, you just have to start trying stuff. When something works a little bit, try more of that.
And for the stuff that doesn’t work? Well, that means nobody talked about it — so nobody knows if it failed.
About Andy Sernovitz
Andy Sernovitz builds organizations that help people help each other. His company, GasPedal, builds peer-to-peer communities for people leading meaningful change at the world’s biggest companies, including SocialMedia.org and SocialMedia.org Health. He wrote the best-selling book Word of Mouth Marketing, which teaches you how to earn the respect and recommendation of your customers.
