Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!
Talk with the people you want talking about you.

43 Comments to “2:00 - Andy Sernovitz on Amazing Word of Mouth for Your Blog”

1. February 10th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
   ME Liz Strauss said

   Hello Andy!!
   Great to see you back on my blog!

2. February 10th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
   Andy Sernovitz said

   Thrilled to be here!

3. February 10th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
   ME Liz Strauss said

   You’re looking good!

   What’s the word where you are?

4. February 10th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
   Andy Sernovitz said

   I’m really exited and pumped up about life. A lot of people are nervous these days, but I know so many entrepreneurs, inventors, and communicators who are going to make things great again.

5. February 10th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
   ME Liz Strauss said

   Yeah, Andy,
   I’m seeing that energy coming back too! You’re doing some great things yourself.

6. February 10th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
   Andy Sernovitz said

   My focus these days is on helping those people who are trying to make social media a reality inside really big companies. It’s harder to blog for a 50,000 employee company that a 5 person company.

7. February 10th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
   Andy Sernovitz said

   Anyone got a word of mouth question? I got answers!

8. February 10th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
   ME Liz Strauss said

   Where do you see the biggest differences? Operational, not legal.

9. February 10th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
   Lauren said

   I’d love to hear about offline promotion of blogs. I have a fledgling design business, and with a background in English and education, I am fairly clueless when it comes to marketing my business and my blog. Of course, half the point of the blog is to market the business…

10. February 10th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    Hi Lauren -

    Offline blog promo is all about “stuff” - little things you can give people in the real world that will send them to your blog. As a designer, you’ll be great at this.

    Every time you meet someone, you should have something to give them that has your url on it. I use business cards, bookmarks, postits … anything cheap and easy to carry.

    When I feel really creative, I do stuff like hand out boxes of cereal and chocolate bars with the blog on a sticker.

11. February 10th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    Liz -

    The hardest part for big organizations is in coordinating across departments. Writing is pretty straightforward, but the challenge is getting customer service, PR, sales, communities, etc., all in sync and supporting a common goal.

12. February 10th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    So how are big companies using social media to get some word of mouth going?

13. February 10th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
    VickyH said

    Do you have some examples of things you’ve seen companies do that you thought were ‘innovative’?

14. February 10th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
    Lauren said

    Alrighty, well, what about online promotion of blogs? Also, here’s a question (not sure if this is entirely on topic, so please disregard if you feel the need!): I am debating about how much of “me” to put into my blog. Thus far it’s been very design oriented, and I haven’t let much personal get into it. I mean, I’ll never have a “dear diary” moment, but the design blogs I enjoy most do have personality to them. I worry though about my own personality getting in the way of clients wanting to work with me. How personal should a professional blog be?

15. February 10th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    My favorite word of mouth stunts are things like we’re doing here: give people a reason to come to your blog at a specific time. I love all sorts of guest posts, group interviews, team projects.

    Something we did recently was take all the videos from our last conference and posting them (one per day) to our blog to get a ton of interest building. It’s about momentum and a reason to return every day.

16. February 10th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
    jon said

    mine’s not a question so much as a comment. I asked you once about email newsletter software. At the time you were using MailChimp, which I started using, and which has been wonderful. Especially with their RSS-to-email feature which allows me to send the blog to people who are more comfortable with email than blogging. So thanks for the WOM

17. February 10th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    Liz -

    My favorite recent big company examples are Molson and Sharpie.

    Molson invites big groups of bloggers to their breweries, because they know that face-to-face is the real way to build relationships.

    Sharpie did a great job of using an Obama pen to get people excited. Here’s a post I did: http://www.damniwish.com/2009/02/showing-is-better-than-selling.html

18. February 10th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    Jon -

    I like MailChip, Vertical Response, and ExactTarget. Those are some of the best solutions for small, medium, and large emailers.

    What’s important is the combination of email and blogs. Not everyone wants to read an RSS feed, so they forget to come back to your blog. Let them get notified however they want.

19. February 10th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    We just wrote a post on the email+blog idea. (We=Cale Johnson, our editor)

    Check it out. We just re-launched our blog yesterday, so feel free to send me bug reports!

    http://gaspedal.com/blog/2009/02/issue-118-word-of-mouth-for-your-blog-posts/

20. February 10th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    What’s the most successful WOM effort you’ve been part of?

21. February 10th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
    VickyH said

    Sometimes CEO’s of large companies or sponsors can be intimidating to people. How do you contact and keep up with these companies and what they do?

22. February 10th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
    Glenda Watson Hyatt said

    Jon, I using Aweber to email posts to readers. Works nicely, imho.

23. February 10th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    Vicky -

    CEO’s are people too! They like attention as much as anyone, so you’ll find it actually much easier to approach them.

    On the other hand, a CEO is often the WRONG person to be blogging. They are too busy. Focus on someone who LOVES it and really loves to talk to people.

24. February 10th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
    Ramon De Leon said

    Andy,
    I really like your posts and thoughts.I am pushing a personalization of my Domino’s Pizza stores thru video and blogs. Customers are shocked that they pizza place is on YouTube and Twitter. I am 90% about interacting and getting to know people and 10% actually selling. Do you think this type of branding makes sense or should word of mouth just be thru product and service?

25. February 10th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
    VickyH said

    I mean don’t you have to get ‘buy in’ at a higher level? How do you sell the concept in general?

26. February 10th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
    VickyH said

    @Ramon Excellent question. I struggle with that too!

27. February 10th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    Ramon -

    This is EXACTLY RIGHT. Do things that get people interested, surprised, and excited.

    You’ve got a problem that all famous brands share: Everyone already knows what you do. Not many people will call a buddy and say “Dude … did you know that Domino’s will bring a pizza RIGHT TO YOUR HOUSE! Whoa!.”

    So you need to keep giving them new things to talk about. “Did you see that Domino’s video?” “Did you know they were on Twitter?” “Did you know you can order off your TiVo?”

    Great stuff.

28. February 10th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    Ramon -

    Your video has 34,000 views! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnADo4h6vSo)

    What other advertising could get 34,000 people to watch, just for fun - for free!

    Nicely done.

    (If you want to send me some samples, my research team will do a detailed review and testing of your product line. We have a lab.)

29. February 10th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
    Ramon De Leon said

    Thanks, I will keep doing that and keep customers in the know.

    @dpzramon (Twitter)

    Good Luck and Great Sales to all!

30. February 10th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
    VickyH said

    @Ramon I would love to hear how things progress in the future @eeUS

31. February 10th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
    Glenda Watson Hyatt said

    Woo, order pizza via Twitter. How cool would that be!

32. February 10th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
    VickyH said

    Andy,

    What would you recommend as far as WOM for a company that’s doesn’t handle negative publicity well?

    Yes, I feel like a moron for asking

33. February 10th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
    Todd Smith said

    Wow! coming in late here, but loving the discussion so far. I hadn’t thought of “stuff” being the best way to promote a blog offline. thanks.

34. February 10th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    Vicky -

    Negative word of mouth is a scary problem - thank you for asking.

    In fact, I just added a chapter to my book on this specific problem:
    http://www.amazon.com/Word-Mouth-Marketing-Companies-Talking/dp/1427798613?&tag=sernovitz0e-20

    Here is the deal:

    You either respond to negative word of mouth, or it gets worse. If you don’t engage and participate, people who are a little mad will get a lot mad when you ignore them.

    Not doing word of mouth because you are afraid of negative WOM is like not going to the doctor because you think you’re sick.

35. February 10th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
    Internet Strategist said

    We all have limited time. Do you recommend focusing much of it on tracking WOM results? If yes, what are you using? (Twurl/Tweetburner?)

    Perhaps it is better to focus almost all of our time and efforts on doing and let the results take care of themselves?

36. February 10th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    Here is the basic plan for responding to negative word of mouth.

    1. Build credibility before you need it. Make friends online, so they defend you when you need it.

    2. Always respond. Say “I’m sorry” and provide contact info. Offer to fix it.

    3. Be human. It’s easy to yell at a company, but it’s hard to keep yelling when Vicky or Jenny or Steve responds.

    4. Follow up. Make sure you fix the problem.

    5. Don’t try to win. You can’t win a fight on someone else’s blog. Just write something reasonable that shows future readers that you tried to help.

37. February 10th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
    VickyH said

    Great dialog, thanks Andy for answering all our questions!

38. February 10th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    Internet Strategist:

    I think people are a bit too obsessed with tracking. It’s good to know what people are saying, but it’s not that important. I use TweetDeck, Google News Alerts, and a spreadsheet.

    What to track:
    1. blog and twitter mentions
    2. how many people are using your tell-a-friend form

    When you do a WOM stunt, be sure to include something trackable. Example: Share a link to a blog post or a coupon to be redeemed.

39. February 10th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    I’ve got a present for everyone.

    (Thank you for inviting me to participate in this great event.)

    I’ll send the top-secret collector’s edition of my book to the first 20 people who tweet this:

    @sernovitz says Everything is going to be OK — http://tinyurl.com/cc2jv8

    (Be sure to send me your mailing address.)

40. February 10th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Wow!
    Some great information.

    Thank you so much, Andy!!

41. February 10th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
    Internet Strategist said

    Love your answers. Thank you for sharing and for the present. I’m sure you’ll get your 20 tweets as I’ve been Tweeting about this chat since it started. Where would you like mailing addresses sent?

42. February 10th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
    Andy Sernovitz said

    DM me on Twitter

43. March 8th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
    12 Horas de um-para-um com peritos « Criação de SItes said

    [...] 2:00 - Andy Sernovitz sobre Amazing Word da boca para o seu blog [...]