The only change to the world of marketing to even begin to rival the impact of the internet and technology itself over the past 10 years is the idea(s) of The Cluetrain Manifesto. "Markets Are Conversations' it famously observed, encouraging companies to construct and participate in two way discussions with their customers, prospects, partners, and marketspace.

An update of sorts is being presented today at a conference in San Francisco in the form of a paper entitled "The Manifesto on Monday Morning: How to put the wisdom of Cluetrain into action when you get to your office.” It will be interesting and probably important to really understand the ideas presented here. Read more about it on ZD - and if you haven't read the book yet - get it!

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 11:10 AM | Permalink

Word-of-Mouth Marketing, Social Networking, User-Generated Content, and all the other reasons why YOU are the Person-of-the-Year are rewriting the way business operates and marketing executes at an ever increasing pace. The iPhone launch would have been big, but it went global-thermo-nuclear with rumor-posts and line-watches and de-boxing and even de-construction. Michael Moore is recruiting Sicko content and generating a mob after launching his movie. And the ignorance and stupidity that operates our airlines has never been better captured than by this guy in 28d.

As social networks and our online identities centralize to manage our individual participation in all of this, a terribly interesting side effect is beginning. As pointed out by The Daily Networker, suddenly our business life can run smack into our personal lives. The comments, photos, links, videos, and other artifacts you’d comfortably share with your ‘real friends’ can be quite uncomfortable or even inappropriate with your ‘professional acquaintances’. Yet FaceBook or MySpace don’t have multi-tier tagging and permission systems that keep these things apart.

The risk/reality of this has obviously been evolving, as ‘googling’ anyone can turn up aspects of their personal life. And of course we’ve had all those teachers who got hassled because they had lives before they became teachers and in some cases imagined they could have private lives after.

But is it a good thing when you connect via a social network with someone with whom you have a perfectly solid professional relationship and suddenly (and without request) come face-to-face with the fact that they support Obama, paint their faces with the No. 17 for Sunday Nascar races, love death-metal, and seem to be really into astrology?

I have no idea what result will come from this aspect of the online conversation, but it will be interesting to watch as these systems cross from the techie corners of society into much more widespread use.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The idea of having a conversation with your marketplace, of sharing the passion and depth of knowledge inside your company with those outside your company, and of expecting those efforts to create meaningful impact in the new prospects that find out about your business due to word-of-mouth promotion is a staple of the 'marketing 2.0' philosophy.

Unfortunately there are far more blog entries about these ideas than there are good examples of their execution.

tv.winlibrary.com is a fantastic example. It shows how one guy, his buddy with a camera, and a boatload of expertise and passion can differentiate one online retailer from hundreds of others like him, and engage a community (and I'm sure sales results).

Check it out.

(Hat tip to BrandBrains where I stumbled onto this.)

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 1:28 AM | Permalink

Yet-another-dustup plays out as yet-another-clueless marketing agency tries to hide behind a fake grassroots movement. An ASK.com hired agency started information-revolution.org complete with offline-advertising to promote it and quickly got busted.

One commenter on the site got it right: “The only revolution going on here is in the comments”.

So we learn the basics again – the fact that everyone can share their opinion easily and in full public view is where the new power lies. Just because you have the nerve and or money to spread a message doesn’t mean you’re going to control it. You may influence some people but you can’t control the direction that influence goes.

On the surface, the result of this so far has been the name-calling, ask-bashing, and the inevitable apology/explanation. But we must admit that the issue of both Google’s dominance and the difference between search result quality and innovation is getting raised too. The controversy of getting caught has almost certainly raised the profile of the campaign to many times its organic potential.

Like a celebrity checking into rehab as a career move, it’s not hard to imagine getting caught as a strategy. I’m not advocating it, but thinking it impossible would be naive.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In terms of driving traffic to a website, for a long time there have been five basic tactics: paid and organic search, email marketing, affiliate programs, and banner advertising. There are lots of variants and versions, but just about everything broadly significant falls into one of these categories.

What's notable about this is that significant visitor traffic has not generally come from the non-advertising links on other websites. Say ‘Link’ to an online marketer and what comes to mind is Google-Juice not inbound traffic.

The link has had its back pushed up against the wall recently, as search engine algorithms increasingly limit their value based on context or any evidence that they exist in order to manipulate rankings.

Exacerbating the demise has been the geniuses who thought you could sell links and the engines wouldn’t figure out and filter them. (Of course, their claims of traffic value in those links ranks up there with ‘buying Playboy for the articles’ and ‘invading Iraq to liberate the Iraqis’ in the pantheon of feeble attempts to subsequently mislabel intent.)

But the link is making a comeback. ‘Conversational links’ – from blogs, social media sites, and the broader world of ‘word-of-mouth’ – those created by a person out of a genuine desire to recommend that link to others, are ready to join the Big 5 as a core component of winning online marketing strategies.

We’ve been doing a lot of strategy work lately, for firms ranging from venture-backed startups to mid-sized private and public companies to the Fortune 100. It’s been amazing to see that in each case ‘participating in the conversation’ is not just a likely effective strategy but has become a core component necessary in order to achieve the goals set out for the next 12-24 months. WOM is no longer an option.

(I’m choosing to group all of these techniques – blogging, social media, etc. under the name ‘word-of-mouth’ because I think the conversational nature is what unites them. And it’s great to have another 3-letter acronym to go along with SEO and SEM, but SMM (social media marketing) doesn’t do it for me.)

Beyond our own direct experience, a barrage of news stories and blog posts inspired this post.

Online marketers already have a lot of skills to juggle. Never-the-less, the time when blogs, social media networks, and wide world of word-of-mouth can be amusingly watched from the sidelines is ending.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 9:11 PM | Permalink

I've mentioned recently that we're working to integrate word-of-mouth into the online marketing programs we manage for our clients. Tonight I came across an interesting opportunity to 'participate in a conversation' on behalf of one of our clients - with someone who has also mentioned here in the past - Jason Calacanis.

It seems Jason is working on losing weight and as he frequently does he's using his blog to get ideas and feedback. One of our clients has a diet product with a very different (and scientifically based) approach to the problem. I think it would be perfect for Jason to assist in his weight loss, and until we can get Oprah to recommend the product I can't think of a better way to get a powerful online reference. So I left a comment, offered him a few free cases with no strings attached.

In the best possible case, Jason will accept our offer, try and like the Satiatrim, and then chose to mention it. In the worst case, he'll accelerate his weight loss. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 11:28 PM | Permalink

Gord Hotchkiss today provides some great thoughts on WOM. He keyed off a new study from eMarketer, clarifies how profoundly the web has accelerated its impact, and also helps to further refine the definition of word of mouth:

Word of mouth implies that you're getting an opinion from someone who:

• is familiar with a product or service through personal experience; and,
• can be objective because they have no vested interested in whether you buy the item or service in question.
  

For us WOM is at the stage where we're 1000% sold on it but still don't have the tools to easily convince decision makers who are buried in other priorities. We have large WOM initiatives planned for several new clients, but have a lot of internal work to do to get final sign-off and determine the specific programs and plans to put into action. This new report, and Gord's insights, will really help.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 5:39 PM | Permalink

I spent most of last week traveling, which unfortunately still means a string of amazingly bad customer service experiences. But one that I witnessed at the Denver International Airport deserves special attention.

While checking in at the gate for my United Airlines flight back to Philadelphia, a guy in a wheelchair rolls up to the counter. He explains to the representative that his leg is broken, he can't move it, won't be able to really fit well in a normal seat, and requests a bulkhead seat.

It's about 10 minutes before boarding, the plane is probably 3/4 full, and it appears most people have already checked in. The rep tells him there is one available, but he'll have to charge him $44 because the seat is designated 'Economy Plus'

There is no way to know if the guy could afford it or not, but he declined the 'offer'. I spoke up on his behalf asking the man behind the counter why he couldn't just give the guy a break and let him have the empty seat. He said he couldn't per the 'rules' and I suggested he contact his supervisor. "Management Don't Care" was the quote I got back.

Mr. broken leg had to be taken back to his seat in row 23 via a special wheelchair that takes people down the aisle of an airplane. They carried him right past the entirely empty bulkhead row which remained that way for the entire flight.

Obviously most of the time we all fly the carrier that goes where we want when we want. But if you ever have the chance to not choose United, please remember this complaintvertisment.

BONUS: I just checked google and there are no results for either complaintvertising or complaintvertisement. Which means this post will be a GoogleWhack tomorrow.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you had a $500M launch budget for a product that nearly everyone was going to have to buy eventually anyway, how much emphasis would you place on word-of-mouth marketing? Microsoft is in that position, and yet thinks the role of influencers is important enough that they're sending Vista-equipped laptops to selected bloggers.

Over the past two weeks I've seen countless TV pundits lambast TIME Magazine's choice of 'You' (as in user-generated) as the 'Person of the Year'. It wasn't hard to understand how a bunch of journalists (mostly in their 50's and 60's) would take the idea too literally, look at YouTube and get confused, and think the editors at TIME had fallen off their rocker.

I wonder if these same folks would have an easier time if they tried to get their heads around the fact that this year, unlike years gone by, Microsoft thinks that a key to the launch of their billion dollar + product is a dozen or so guys with blogs but not many (mostly 1000 or way less) readers.

The internet connected people, blogs gave them a voice, and syndication and other 'web2.0' technologies help rank and then magnify certain of those voices. It's a massive simplification but it's also true. That would be important enough, but now that the traditional media puts their huge magnifying glass in front of those who first gain influence online, the power of one person and a blog is nearly unimaginable.

Microsoft probably spent less than $100K on this exercise. If they'd have chosen to spend $1M it probably would have been a wise decision.

More interesting is the question of how businesses without $500M take advantage of these changes. We're spending more and more time thinking about this as we continue to see large and increasingly urgent opportunity for our clients in the world of blogs, communities, and word of mouth.

Sidebar: The blog-nannies are calling the laptops payolla and predicting a major backlash. This will help balance things out, proving you can write a blog and be both wrong and non-influential too.

Update: Scoble thinks it's good. Microsoft sends out a very silly request to 'give the laptop away or send it back', and other opinions emerge. The circus is in town.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 7:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

To help generate buzz for the WOMMA Summit taking place in DC this week, the Federal Trade Commission issued an opinion suggesting that "companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships." (as reported in the Washington Post.)

My first question is whether it was the Post or the FTC that got the comma wrong. There is lots of WOM in which people are not compensated, and one would assume that won't be subject to disclosure rules.

TechDirt frames this part of the discussion by saying that "True word of mouth efforts don't come about as the result of any specific campaign". I disagree with that statement but it does highlight the fact that WOM is intended to encourage and facilitate discussion and compensation – either as direct monetary payments or in the form of rewards, discounts, or prizes - is an optional component.

Determining the levels of grey is going to be the fun in all of this. Paid WOM, which is basically another name for affiliate marketing, should be disclosed and I (like WOMMA) applaud the FTC for their position.

But what about refer-a-friend programs where the original customer gets a discount when they get others to sign up? Sirius Satellite Radio currently has a holiday promotion whereby a current subscriber who gives another person the ‘gift of Sirius’ is rewarded with a Howard Stern keychain – does this mean there will be 5-point legal disclaimer type on the bottom of Christmas cards this year?

NOTE: Ad Age spins the story differently pointing out that the FTC rejected a request for a full-scale 'probe' into word of mouth practices. They suggest this will lead to increased WOM activity.

PS: I've shared some more thoughts on the implications for affiliates over at ReveNews.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 7:57 AM | Permalink

Opinions and Reviews are in many ways the basis of Marketing2.0. Consumers now have a voice, Brands are not defined by the company, Etc. Etc. Etc. The reviews on Amazon.com and Epinions were the first wave, followed by affinity forums where the merits of just about anything is endlessly debated (my favorite example continues to be The Remote Control Forums) and of course the opinions-are-oxygen world of weblogs. New technology and services to foster reviews are emerging with BazaarVoice and others.

Fake reviews, or those posted by shills, have long been a problem in the world of user-generated content. From authors' friends writing Amazon reviews to completely fake blogs discussing the merits of products and companies, the utopian dream of helpful and unbiased information had long required a healthy dose of cynicism and fact-checking.

So how do reviews posted on blogs for which the writer is paid, but discloses this fact, change the equation? ReviewMe.com has opened a marketplace for reviews. Anyone with a product or service that wishes to 'buy' reviews from bloggers, simply says how much they're willing to pay. Bloggers who want to receive these offers register their website and are then ranked and rated to have their 'value' determined. ReviewMe then plays matchmaker and the opinions and the cash flow.

The reality, of course, is that most 'review buyers' will be more interested in the links that come from the posts than the reviews themselves. Buying links in blogs for one-time fees isn't a bad deal if the ReviewMe pricing system essentially values PageRank and Authority, which it does. The impact on word-of-mouth and actual click-through traffic will be considered a bonus and almost certainly be positive on balance, assuming that both most reviewers aren't too harsh (a truism) and particularly lousy products and services probably won't participate.

Continue reading "Reviews Get Another Boost, Or Do They?" »

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 12:27 AM | Permalink

Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz is a surprisingly good albeit imperfect book. I give it very high marks for clearly defining the often hard-to-pin-down concept of ‘word of mouth’ and for elaborating on the definition with very clear rules for it, reasons to do it, components of it, and a built-in implementation workbook that can help many people solidify their understanding and move into application.

My favorite passage is the definition itself:

Word of mouth is about genuine conversation. Word of mouth marketing is joining that conversation, participating in it – but never manipulating it (sic) in any way.

I also like the practicality of the ‘Five Ts’ which show how to make the concepts actionable:

• Talkers: Who will tell their friends about you?
• Topics: What will they talk about?
• Tools: How can you help the message travel?
• Taking Part: When should you join the conversation?
• Tracking: What are people saying about you?

There are however two areas where I wish the book were stronger:

Continue reading "Book Review: Word of Mouth Marketing" »

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 11:48 PM | Permalink

A few days ago I documented some problems I had making reservations using the Sheraton website. Yesterday I got a call from someone at Sheraton, who let me know that my 'post had come to the attention' of somone and she was calling to help.

What she did, in fact, was adjust my room rate down to the sold-out group rate, and apologize for the issues on the site and the fact that the telephone team had no information or power to resolve problems which began on the website. I'm pleased about the resolution, and glad to see they're monitoring the blogosphere so closely. Just another example of how powerful this tool is.

While ultimately it shouldn't take a public (and potentially embarrasing) stand to get personal problems resolved, assuming they take internal action beyond just molifying me (and the other online whiners) then everyone benefits. I got the sense on the call that having this type of 'ammo' even helps the insiders who want to get the call center folks better attuned to life in a web-based world.

Thanks Sheraton.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 3:18 PM | Permalink

Making a reservation for the upcoming Emetrics Summit should be a simple process. Sheraton managed to make it a nightmare. The mess began on the Starwood Website where entering all the required info including the Promotion Code returns the following hard to read message:

Thinking that perhaps the Starwood site didn't have the promo-code rate but the Sheraton.com site would (that's the one the brochure suggested), I went there to give it another try. It quickly became obvious that I wound up on the same page and the deal was not going to be had online. Another available rate, with the friendly terms of pre-pay and no-refunds, was only $20 higher so I opted for that.

After finishing the complete reservation, reviewing the terms and details, and submitting my reservation, I was given this notice that I'd just wasted my time (click to enlarge)

OK, to the phones. There I am told that the promo rate is unavailable for 2 of the 3 nights of the conference, and the internet rate I was trying to book cannot be provided. Requesting a supervisor results in a few minutes of hold music and then a dead line. Calling back I got hung up on 2 more times, but this the simple result of a rep who admitted she didn't know how to use the phone system.

On the last attempt I made it to a 'reservations supervisor' who was equally incapable, unempowered, and/or not well-trained enough to simply take my reservation and provide the internet rate. Instead I was advised to book at a nearly 50% higher rate and then wait to talk to the hotel itself the next day. I declined this 'offer'.

I'm a Starwood Preferred Guest program member, but really haven't stayed there much in recent years. I'll probably wind up at the hotel where the event is, for simple convenience, but will go elsewhere in the future when I have the choice. Hopefully this little story helps to erode their image and appeal to many others, and prompt someone at Starwood to a) reprogram the website to tell you it's not accepting reservations before allowing people to spend time making reservations, and b) train and empower the telephone reps to properly pick up the slack when the site does go down.

Interestingly, I just heard today that there is another Word-of-Mouth conference coming up. I hope I have better luck getting reservations for that one...

Update: Sheraton Responds

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

AOL hit the New York Times today, because something they probably do every day and have done for months or years, was recorded, blogged, and digged. They put a subscriber through 21 minutes of hell in a nearly vain attempt to cancel his AOL account.

As an example of the power of word-of-mouth, this joins the web hall of fame along with Jeff Jarvis' Dell Hell, the Kryptonite Lock Picked by a Bic, and others. I'm sure these examples cost their companies real money and hopefully others are learning from their anti-examples.

If you allow online signup, you must allow cancellation with approximately the same visibility and simplicity.

Just last week I needed to cancel two accounts created online, one with GoToMyPC and one with Iron Mountain's Connected backup service. Both required phone calls and a whole lot more time than a few clicks on a web page and email confirmation. Both lied and said it was "for my security." Both had a very real shot at future business and recommendations from me, but will now get neither. I have a hosting plan with a european ISP that I've been trying to cancel for about two years - but $30 a month on my Visa just keeps going and going.

There's only one reason to not provide online cancellation: to delay or prevent cancellation. It's a trick that contributes hundreds-of-millions to online subscription firms everywhere. It's time for it to stop. All in favor, signify by saying 'Web Law'.

BTW: Anyone know if there is a 'real world' consumer protection law that could be used to force 'online cancelations' to become more universal?

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Late Wednesday evening I ordered a few copies of 'Waiting for Your Cat to Bark' for a client from Barnes & Noble specifically because they promise 'same day delivery in Manhattan'. But since the power of word-of-mouth and customer referrals is so central to the theme, I feel compelled to warn you that it doesn't always turn out that way.

My order was placed in the wee hours of Thursday the 22nd. It should have been an easy 'same day delivery' as they literally had the entire day. The web site even reported status as 'scheduled for delivery 6/22'. When our client informed me late on the 23rd that the books had not arrived, the real fun began. Three phone calls and four B&N people later, they still had no idea why the order wasn't delivered, and little indication it would get there by close of business business (and it happened to be a Friday). After some prodding, they offered to schedule a Saturday home delivery, and I can only hope that made it. 'Guarenteed Same Day Delivery' turned out to be '3rd day delivery if you call us three times and make sure it happens'. Next time, I'm back to Amazon and suggest you just start there.

I'll also point out that the online ordering process at B&N doesn't make the Manhattan delivery option very clear. It tells you the book qualifies for 'free same day delivery' but still offer you four shipping options without making it clear that you don't have to choose any expedited delivery.

I know the Eisenbergs have sold a lot of books through BN.com. I hope someone there grabs a copy and reads it.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 12:40 PM | Permalink