Updates from October, 2010

• USAA: WOM Innovator Since 1921
  
  

  Pat McCarthy 9:23 am on October 29, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
  Tags: Brands and WOM (503), Offline WOM (60), Summit 2010 (36)

  

  Rhonda Crawford is the VP of Digital Media & Innovation at USAA. Last year her team was responsible for delivering both online and offline member communications that generated an estimated $172 million in revenue through product, service and advice content, and drove another $145 million in new assets through customer-facing webinars.

  Lots of folks think that word of mouth only works for flashy products. How has USAA turned banking, investing and insurance into a talkable product?

  Great question. I tell you what, with what’s happening in the economy right now, personal finance is top of mind. So it’s definitely talkable in that sense. But still the reality at the end of the day is the average American spends more time planning their vacation then planning their retirement. So we what we have done is really activated communities. The interest in these groups has been more around connecting in conversations with our experts, employees, and certified financial planners almost more so than member to member. We think as that conversation and dialogue grows and that communities grows then those conversations will expand into other conversations strings.

  How has your brand’s story driven its word of mouth?

  Well, I would say that we are one of the original word of mouth companies on the Fortune 200. We were founded in 1921 and literally began out of hotel here in San Antonito, Texas of a group of army officers deciding to basically insure each other. Out of that grows this Fortune 200 financial services company, but it was built on word of mouth. So our members would only talk to those friends that they wanted to be part of this insurance pool and word of mouth has been key to our growth.

  You don’t see us buying Superbowl commercials. We only now, here at the nearly 88 year mark, are starting to do any type of television adverting. So I think that word of mouth has been our number one marketing tactic since 1921. It was very natural for us, as opposed to others in highly regulated industries, to want to be in social media. So I would very much put USSA among the fan brands, right there with Disney, Coca-Cola, and Apple. I think you see that on our Facebook page and the tone of our Facebook fan. I really don’t look around at my competitors and here people saying about them, “(fill in the blank with a competitor) is the bomb diggity,” or “If (competitor) were a man, I’d marry him.” But those are the kind of tweets and Facebook comments that we see on a daily basic with this brand.

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  Rhonda will present at WOMMA Summit 2010, Nov. 17-19. Her session is titled: Igniting WOM Through Influencers and Innovative Ideas.

  http://womma.org/summit/

  

  

   

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• Ed Keller’s Summit Notes
  
  

  Pat McCarthy 9:19 am on October 29, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
  Tags: Summit 2010 (36)

  

  Ed Keller is the CEO of the Keller Fay Group, WOMMA’s Treasurer and a WOMMA Board Member.

  Why are you going to WOMMA’s What’s Best/What’s Next Summit?

  The world of marketing, especially social media and word of mouth marketing, is moving forward at an electric pace.  To know what’s happening today and what’s on the horizon requires that I keep up with the people who are shaping our industry.  The WOMMA Summit is where anyone who’s anyone in our industry gathers, so I need to be there too to catch up with old friends about what’s new, and meet new people to learn what they are doing that’s new, different, and important.

  What’s the one or two things you expect to take away from this year’s event?

  The WOMMA Summit is a frenzied festival of great ideas about best practices in WOM and social media – what’s working, why, and how do we measure it.  I expect to learn and be inspired by both big as well as small brands.  But most of all, I expect to take away a larger, better connected network of people I can stay in touch with and share with all year long.

  ———————

  Read more about Summit 2010, Nov. 17-19 here.

  Register here.

  

  

   

• Case Study Interview: Jamba Juice Athletics
  
  

  Pat McCarthy 10:47 am on October 27, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
  Tags: Influencers (60), Offline WOM (60), Summit 2010 (36)

  

  Stephany Cavatoni is the General Manager, Consumer Insight and Access for Active Network and Damon Miller is the Senior Director of Marketing Communications & Promotions at Jamba Juice. At Summit 2010, they will present their SuperActive Summer campaign case study that engaged the active lifestyle community both online and offline.

  What key lessons have you learned about turning online interactions into customers buying products from this campaign?

  Stephany: When we think about dominant target consumer, generally people that are active and health conscious in all aspects of their lifestyle, you really need this 360-degree view of how they’re getting brand and product messaging. Make sure that that messaging is relevant at that time. So when we talk about online interactive with this program in particular, we had a couple of ways that we integrated Jamba Juice’s helpful messaging as something that really supports a healthy lifestyle. We integrated relevant content and as well as high traffic areas where we know that we are going to find those consumers in pursue in the healthy activities that they’re doing.

  For example, we have this active summer section. Every summer we help people find activities and things to do whether it’s camping and participating in events. For our consumers it’s about their quest to find things to do that support their lifestyle. By incorporating that message at a point of relevance leads them to think about us and then say, “Hey, Jamba has this new product and oh by the way we’re going to be in Sacramento at this event. You can try it and get a coupon.” So, it’s really about having a 360 degree view to consistently have that message across all those touch points.

  Damon: To build on what Stefanie said, it really takes a balance of messaging between delivering relevant product and brand information that makes you relevant to them, but also you also need to provide a call-to-action to come into the store. We’ve found that you can’t do one without the other. You have the interaction to make sure they understand the product, why it’s relevant to them, and how it fits into their lifestyle. This is especially true when we use Diatec because we feel it’s good fit from a lifestyle standpoint. People already open to healthier products and products that provide specific benefits like our smoothies with boost or super-fruit that were specifically developed with that antitoxin message that we felt was important with this group.

  At the same time, we also recognize that the online environment is a pretty crowded space. You can’t just rely on product message to deliver something about the brand; you also need to provide a reason to come into the store. For us, that typically is a specific promotion around the product we’re talking about. So you’re saying why it’s relevant and that this is an opportunity to try it with less risk.

  For our summer campaign, we launched a campaign called a “feel good” special, which was a series of promotions throughout the week that we felt fit different peoples’ tastes and especially the active lifestyle. That might be an offer on our oatmeal on one day of the week, fruit smoothies on another day, or an offer on our ideal meals on another day. So as we talk about these products and being active, we also need to deliver compelling solutions that have a certain value for it. We don’t always feel like we need to discount but we know that especially in the online world you have to have that call-to-action with it to get them excited enough to get in their car and drive to Jamba Juice.

  

  In your Summit case study, you tapped the athletic community to build WOM. Why this group in particular?

  Stephany: In my new role as Head of Consumer Insight we having been building up this panel and doing a lot of research about our consumers to really validate a lot of things we intuitionally knew about our consumers. One thing I will say about people who actually pay to run in races, take their kids to youth sports, and go camping is that they are naturally what I would call the Alphas in a community. They tend to be readers and pretty outspoken.

  All the research that we’ve recently done, shows that if you can tap into this active, health and wellness focused consumers. They are not only passionate about activities but they tend to be passionate about everything that they do. That gives you sort of access to these consumers who are naturally wired and have a real need to talk and share their opinions with their friends and their families. We know that about eighty-five percent of them consider themselves very well-versed in health and fitness and are not shy about sharing that. In fact, our panel that we recruited exclusivity from our network of consumers is about four times as responsive as a normal panel. And that’s without any sort of monetary incentives to help us.

  The passion that that they bring to their health and fitness activities really transcends to all aspects of their lives. So tapping into that natural ability to get out there to share and represent brands that they feel passionate about really worked well with a brand like Jamba Juice.

  Damon: One of the key things for Jamba Juice, as a brand we’ve been repositioning ourselves from a traditional smoothie company to a more healthy lifestyle brand overall. With that we’ve expanded our portfolio, both from the beverage side and the food side and tried to provide greater solutions for people that live a healthy and active lifestyle. We’ve supplemented that with programs like our participation in races, in the community, and in supporting schools. We definitely take a 360 approach to it.

  We find the best way to deliver that message about who we are and what we’re trying to do is to not only to use traditional reach vehicles and advertising, but also to leverage individuals out in the community or at the point of interaction. The community brings a sense of credibility and a sense of passion around what we’re trying to do. The best people to do that are the ones that live that lifestyle, understand what we’re trying to do and have a strong influence on others. We explore different ways to leverage that advocacy group. We’ve looked at many programs but we know that having feet on the ground at critical points, like races, workouts, or events in the community, are critical places to do that because it really is a point of thirst. So an offline group like this is a great compliment to what we do online and even in our stores because they really feel why Jamba Juice is a healthy lifestyle brand.

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  To hear Stephany, Damon and a ton of other great WOM practitioners speak, attend WOMMA Summit 2010, Nov. 17-19.

  

  

   

• David Rabjohns’ Quick & Dirty on Summit 2010
  
  

  Pat McCarthy 10:35 am on October 27, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
  Tags: Summit 2010 (36), WOM Trends (738)

  

  David is the CEO of MotiveQuest, the chair of the WOMMY Awards & a WOMMA Board Member.

  Why are you going to WOMMA’s What’s Best/What’s Next Summit?

  To keep up with the rapid growth of ideas and activities in the dynamic word of mouth space.

  What’s the one or two things you expect to take away from this year’s event?

  New ideas that can help me and my clients businesses grow.

  ————-

  Read more interviews with speakers and board members here.

  Summit 2010 info and registration here.

  

  

   

• Members in the Spotlight
  
  

  Pat McCarthy 10:32 am on October 27, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
  Tags: Member News (143)

  WOMMA is Proud to Welcome Our Newest Members:

  Governing:

  Worldcom Public Relations Group

  Standard:

  nFusion

  Nintendo of America

  The Coca-Cola Company

  Espahle

  Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today announced that Kolcraft, a leading global supplier of baby gear and the number 1 manufacturer of crib mattresses, has launched Bazaarvoice’s entire social commerce platform to better engage customers as they research and shop across the web.

  Zuberance, provider of an award-winning Word of Mouth marketing platform that energizes Brand Advocates, announced today it has received $8 million in Series B funding led by Canaan Partners. Existing investor Emergence Capital Partners and Correlation Ventures also participated in the round. Read more.

  Recommended Events

  Pivot Conference

  10/17-19/2010
  Learn More Here: http://www.pivotcon.com/

  Pivot Conference is the only event singularly focused on the 18-34 demographic - their attitudes, technologies and preferences. Join us in NY in October 17-19 and learn how to inhabit the culture and conversations of today’s empowered, emerging consumer. Hear from foursquare, Virgin America, Bing, Dell, Cisco, Dwell and more.

  Register with code WOMMA995 and receive an exclusive WOMMA discount rate of $995 for the full conference.

  ———————

  Social Media Legal Risks and Strategy

  1/12/2011 - 1/14/2011

  Learn More Here: http://www.marcusevansch.com/wo_sm

  Many organizations are utilizing the power of social media to get their services and brands further into the public sphere. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have made it very easy to contact practitioners within organizations, maintain relationships and increase business opportunities. However, some organizations are still hesitant to maximize their use of online networking. Risks such as breach of privacy fear of legal action, developing a negative reputation and lack of control has given way to avoidance of this important tool.

  

  

   

• B2B & WOM: NetApp Gets Social
  
  

  Pat McCarthy 8:36 am on October 25, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
  Tags: Brands and WOM (503), Summit 2010 (36), WOM B2B (51), WOM How-to (591)

  

  Alex Plant is the Head of Social Media at NetApp. He will present NetApp’s emergence as a leading social B2B brand at Summit 2010.

  At Summit you’re going to talk about how B2B companies use social to drive sales. Could you give us one example of how NetApp has done that?

  When we think about social media at NetApp, it’s definitely a marketing tool. We’ve always looked at it as a way to build awareness. A lot of us come from a communication background and our focus of this year has been to try to forge relationships with our field sales and our demand generation team so that we start to integrate different calls to action into every single communication that we have on social media. If you can, every tweet, every Facebook post, every YouTube video gives a reason to extend the lifecycle of the engagement. So, they’ve read your tweet. Then what? Bring them back to NetApp.com. You want to keep taking that concept further. So we work with our marketing team and ask what else would these people be interested. Is there a whitepaper you can give them? Something else?

  I’m not going to lead them from Twitter to a registration page because that violates all the tenets of social media. What we will do is lead them along a logical path to an end point.

  To give you a tangible example, we have launch coming this fall. We’re going to be really making sure we have a few carrots out there, we call them honeypots. What we’re going to do is find out where our key influencers are and make sure that information is there. Whether it’s product information, a customer story or a technical discussion, we’re really thinking about the buyer’s journey.

  The other part of the idea is bringing listening back into the sales part of the business. I was just in New York meeting with several of our salespeople. Their reaction was like “Social media? What? I don’t need that. My seventeen year old uses Facebook!” But then I showed them tangible examples of customer complaints, leads that have generated through Facebook, information and intelligence that we can glean from our competitors.

  I think that it’s not only important to push information out with social media but also to bring it in to the business. That’s one thing I’ve learned this year as a huge value-add to anyone who thinks social media is their profession.

  What should B2B brands who are interested in expanding to social know before beginning?

  Enter into it with a persona or audience mindset. At least think about who you’re trying to reach. It’s very easy for people in my situation to just say, “Great, we have a Facebook page and Twitter account.” But your demographic may not be on there. As you go, don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

  I think people misuse Facebook a lot of the times, but it’s a great corporate brand tool. So we had to figure out what tools matched what audiences. We have a very technical audience and knowing that was the key. If you try to have a social media strategy that tries to be all things to all people, then you will find it will be nothing to anyone. No conversations will be started and it will be a huge miss.

  The other part that they should know is the measurement standpoint. What are the tools that will really help you to show value internally. It’s one thing for you to speak in your own language to talk about share of voice, sentiment, and tone. That’s great, but it only gets you so far. One thing that is really powerful is understanding internally how people determine value and how I can create metrics to get us there.

  

  

   

• BzzAgent’s Dave Balter on What’s Next & What’s Best
  
  

  Pat McCarthy 8:34 am on October 25, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
  Tags: Summit 2010 (36)

  

  Dave Balter is the CEO of BzzAgent, a WOMMA Board Member and one of the WOMMA founders.

  Why are you going to WOMMA’s What’s Best/What’s Next Summit?

  Of all the great things going on at WOMMA, I am most excited to discuss the newest studies and best practices in measuring social media and word of mouth. We’ve all seen how effective word of mouth is at moving product and social commerce is on the top of everyone’s mind this year. Yet with all this success, many are still questioning the ROI of social media.  We are using a variety of practices, including Market Mix Modeling, to demonstrate the ROI and the results have been outstanding.

  The WOMMA Summit is the one place where the leading minds in the industry and the most forward thinking companies come together to discuss what’s next in word of mouth marketing. I am looking forward to sharing what we’ve learned about measurement and discussing the role of ROI in social media.

  What’s the one or two things you expect to take away from this year’s event?

  After measurement, I’m looking forward to seeing the industry make real progress with the privacy issue.  Facebook’s privacy controversy refuses to go away – with the WSJ recently exposing data security breaches by some of the most popular apps. This has implications for all companies in this space that use Facebook to support the spread and measurement of peer conversations.

  WOMMA member companies have an opportunity to take a leadership role in making sure these abuses don’t continue.  This could involve setting up voluntary guidelines for app providers to subscribe to, above and beyond Facebook’s own policies.  I’m looking forward to discussing how our community can help brands navigate this potential minefield.

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  More on WOMMA Summit 2010 Here

  

  

   

• Bloggers Can Be More Influential Than Friends
  
  

  Pat McCarthy 9:11 am on October 22, 2010 | 2 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
  Tags: Blogs (45), Influencers (60)

  Everyone has a group of people that they trust. This core group wields an immense amount of influence on a person. But there is a psychological aspect of close relationships that can make people defer to experts, such as bloggers, instead of their inner circle.

  A post on PsyBlog stated:

  “…As this study shows, on the vast majority of occasions the less we know about someone the more we are inclined to like them. It’s like the fake student in Moreland and Beach’s study, ambiguity allows us to imagine that other people share our world-view, our personality traits or our sense of humour. Unfortunately as soon as we start to find out more about them, we’re likely to find out how different they are to ourselves and, as a result, to dislike them.”

  We’d like to know what everyone thinks about this. Would you trust your favorite bloggers as much if you knew them like friends?

  Read the full post at Word of Mouth Newsletter

  

  

   

• John Bell is Jazzed…
  
  

  Pat McCarthy 9:05 am on October 22, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
  Tags: Summit 2010 (36)

  …About Summit 2010.

  

  Why are you going to WOMMA’s What’s Best/What’s Next Summit?

  I need to see the best case studies in social media from all sorts of brands. My experience going to WOMMA Summit has shown me that I can hear the most strategic use of social media there. It’s not just about the latest Facebook app or blogger program, disciplined marketers come to share effective and creative use of social media.

  Between the WOMMY award winners and the other case sessions, I know I will hear a lot of real world stories.

  What’s the one or two things you expect to take away from this year’s event?

  Two things I am counting on at this year’s WOMMA Summit:

  1. I need to hear what others feel is coming next. Not ‘5 year next’ but ‘next year next.’ I may think I know what is coming down the pike but I have learned humility in these always-changing, new-normal days. I should get a strong indicator from attendees – other brand marketers – whether, for example,  we are ready to move on to social CRM or if next year will continue to be all about Facebook.

  2. I am also counting on seeing some new technologies this year. WOMMA has been a good forum for seeing pretty mature marketing technology solutions and I really think we’ll see some new ones this year.

  

  

   

• Clever Way to Join the Conversation
  
  

  Pat McCarthy 9:01 am on October 22, 2010 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
  Tags: Creative WOM Ideas (256), Summit 2010 (36)

  If you offer a service that helps people track and analyze their personal finances, how do you join the conversation to raise your influence?

  Mint.com produced a great and very sharable interactive graphic about poverty in America. Let us know if you think it was a hit or miss.

  

  Also of note - Mint.com is presenting with Get Satisfaction at WOMMA Summit 2010. More on their session here: http://womma.org/summit/agenda/