You don’t have to have a physical store to get out there, meet your fans, and earn word of mouth face-to-face. But you also don’t have to hold a big, expensive event to do it.
When a team from Pinterest went to South by Southwest in Austin, they didn’t fly from San Francisco. Instead they drove a rented Winnebago on a massive road trip, stopping along the way to meet their fans. That way, they turned something they were already doing — traveling to a conference — into a unique opportunity to earn word of mouth along the way.
It’s easy for an online company like Pinterest to have the chocolate problem — everyone knows who they are and what they do. But by breaking out of their typical, online presence and actually meeting their fans in person, they gave people something new to talk about.
