By Stacey Kawakami, Group Practice Director, Room 214

At WOMM-U, several brands and agencies really honed in on the idea of “schema disruption,” which we love to strategize.

Schema disruption is the creation of an experience that varies from a consumer’s expectation. A recent example is Domino’s campaign around their low quality food. Our expectation is that Domino’s does not make the best tasting pizza, and that they would never admit that. Domino’s did just that — they launched a full-blown marketing campaign admitting that their pizza was bad. They posted pictures of awful-looking pizzas, took responsibility for their work, and tried to fix it. This disrupted people’s schemas and created a ton of word of mouth buzz around the brand.

At WOMM-U, Steve Knox of the Boston Consulting Group did a great job outlining three simple steps to create a strategy around schema disruption:

1. Identify the schemas around your brand, product, or industry. What things do people expect to always happen (good or bad)
2. Brainstorm ways to disrupt them. (This is the fun part!)
3. Start with small tests of your schema-disrupting tactics and scale them for success.

Obviously though, we want to disrupt people’s schemas in a positive way, so that we are creating brand evangelists with our work. While Domino’s did a great job with a very negative situation, let’s dissect an example of a positive one. Elevations Credit Union (one of Room 214’s awesome clients, for full disclosure) set out to disrupt a pretty common pre-conceived notion about banks:

1. Schema: Banks love to take your money.
2. Disruption: It’s Valentine’s Day. Let’s go out as a bank and buy people dinner!
3. Do this at a few restaurants in town, create a shareable video, then upload to YouTube and distribute.

Now, disrupt our schemas and leave us some comments below about some of the great executions you’ve seen around this concept.

By Brandon Whalen, Social Media Strategist, Room 214

We’ve all heard the talk about marketing and content. Content is the currency of the web. Marketing is content. Content is king. While we all agree that content is important, very few marketers take a deep look at their consumers’ needs before they start producing content. The result for the consumer is frustration and confusion, which can result in a costly loss of business.

Someone ready to make a purchase will be frustrated by wading through product information on their way to a shopping cart, while alternatively, someone browsing your tweets will be turned-off by constant salesmanship.

Your goal, as a marketer and content creator, is to create content that will get people talking about your company. The best way to do this is to truly relate to your customers, but therein lies the problem. From the point customers first learn about you, their content needs will change and shift as they move closer to making a purchase.

Therefore, content needs to change with the consumer as their mindset shifts from being someone who has just become aware of your company to someone who is considering a purchase.

Organizing all of that content can be very tricky, but a great way to get started with organizing your content marketing efforts is to look at the typical sales funnel process from the consumer’s perspective and ask yourself what kind of content you are producing during each phase of the customer journey.

To get started, take a look at the outline below. You will quickly see points where your content is lacking and hopefully get some new ideas to improve the content you are missing.

Awareness:

Consumers are just dipping their toes into the pool. They’ll be looking to inform themselves and learn more about the industry/products/subject.

● Consumer mindset: “I’m looking to be informed on a subject before I even consider buying anything.”

● Company’s Content Goal: Become a credible resource for consumers as they are in this learning stage.

● Types of Content: SEO, Social Media, Paid Advertising, Blog Posts.

● Great Example: GE’s Ecomagination

Consideration:

The consumer is starting to gain interest, and wants to know more about his/her options, become more educated on the subject, and alleviate their fears.

● Consumer mindset: “I’m trying to understand my options and be able to ask the right questions as I prepare to talk with more knowledgeable people.”

● Company’s Content Goal: Help your visitors be more informed of their options.

● Types of Content: Forums, eBooks/whitepapers, demos, calculators, tools, videos, infographics.

● Great Example: Ford Social Hub

Preference:

Consumers are more knowledgeable at this stage, and they can jump into conversation to ask questions about their potential purchase. At this point, they want to hear from people who have already experienced the product.

● Consumer mindset: “I’ve done my research and I’m narrowing down my options by reading reviews and talking to people who have experience with the product.”

● Company’s Content Goal: Provide content from users, influencers and other trustworthy sources which will put you at the top of the list during decision time.

● Types of Content: Product trials, reviews, recommendations, case studies, user generated content (message boards, review systems etc).

● Great Example: American Express Open Forum for small business

Purchase:

At the purchase point it is all about customer experience. The consumer wants this process to go smoothly and easily. Any hassle or impedance will be bad for business.

● Consumer mindset: “I’ve done the research and now I want to make my well informed decision, and I don’t want any hassles in the process.”

● Company’s Content Goal: Make the purchase process easy and enjoyable.

● Types of Content: UI/UX in the purchase process, promotions, sign-up tools, shopping carts, easy instructions.

● Great Example: Mint.com Community

Loyalty:

Often overlooked, but the most valuable stage of the customer experience. Starting from the moment someone makes a purchase, you want to encourage them to become advocates for your company. It’s easier to generate word of mouth from people who love your product than folks who barely know who you are.

● Consumer mindset: “I’ve made my purchase and I had a good experience. Now I want to tell people about the good experience and help others in their decision process.”

● Content Goal: Continue the good experience, create a community of existing users, and reward people for their loyalty.

● Types of Content: Private advocate communities (FB Groups, private login sites), community of current users (email newsletter, message boards), free goodies, rewards for being awesome.

● Great Example: The Food Family (Resteraunt.com Private Facebook Group)

Originally published on Spredfast’s Blog.

By Courtney Doman, Social Media Specialist, Spredfast

The Spredfast team is back in the office after a jetsetting week. On the heels of MashCon, we deployed Spredfasters to Chicago, NYC, and right here in our home base of Austin for a slew of great events (WOMM-U, AdAge Social Engagement/Social TV, and WOM Crash Course, respectively.)

As for me, I packed a bag and headed Midwest for my first ever WOMMA event. WOMM-U was three days packed with Professors of WOMM sharing expert insights and examples of successful Word of Mouth Marketing online and in real life. Not so unlike my freshman days at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) I spent the plane ride pouring over the schedule, highlighting the can’t-miss sessions and agonizing over how to fit it all in.

So did I make the grade? Without any embarrassing underclassmen moves? Join me for a quick WOMM-U review session to find out.

Class is in Session
“Social Media Across the Enterprise” moderated by Spredfast’s Jordan Slabaugh with Aramark’s Tom Carusona and Whole Food’s Natanya Anderson was packed—with attendees and with valuable insights on how to operate a social business at scale. Tom and Natanya offered complementary insights on the topics of reigning in a far-flung social footprint, training employees to engage socially, and expanding social efforts beyond the marketing department. At Whole Foods, that means including the produce department, the floral department, and other in-store experts that can share valuable content with followers. According to Anderson, “The key to efficiency in social is using more people with more expertise.”

Cafeteria Comedians
On day two, a team from Second City stopped by during lunch to school us on “The “Second City” Approach to Content Development & Reaching an Audience” They shared how they use comedy to spark innovation and create great content. When, inevitably, they called for volunteers from the crowd, I ran (yes, literally) up to the stage. What ensued was a Will-Ferrell-in-Old-School-esque blackout—so much for avoiding any freshman follies! You can hear my thoughts on the session, captured by WOMMA, here.

Many, Lightweight Interactions
One of my favorite sessions was led by Paul Adams, Facebook’s Global Brand Experience Manager. In his keynote on how the web is being redesigned around people, Adams covered the nature of networks, the concept of homophily (people like others who are similar to themselves), and the process of forming relationships: through many, lightweight interactions over time.

Adams advised brands using Facebook to design the story, not the app, first. By sharing the brand story through brief, newsfeed worthy content, brands lay the foundation of many, lightweight interactions upon which deeper engagement via brand pages and custom apps can be built.

Great Content: The Americone Dream

WOMM-U closed with Brain Traffic CEO, Kristina Halvorson, speaking on, “The Content Strategy Imperative Bringing it all together the Content Journey.” Halvorson opened by likening the hoards of content littering the web to the mountains of trash covering Planet Earth in Pixar’s Wall-E. Great content, Halvorson explained, stems from a content strategy that incorporates both content and people components.

Halvorson led the room on a tour of Ben & Jerrys digital presence to examine the consistency, usability, and appeal of their content. I can only imagine that Ben and Jerry’s was the subject of study because of its status as unofficial late-night study snack of college students everywhere. Scooping into the content revealed the good, bad, and ugly, which Halvorson used to demonstrate the importance of proper workflow, governance, and content substance and structure.

My first WOMM-U was a hit, I met great people and learned a ton. While I couldn’t make it to every session on my list, I left with an arsenal of new knowledge as a Student of WOMM.

What I want to know, speaking of Word of Mouth, is how many of my fellow WOMM-U attendees departing out of Midway felt compelled to stop by Ben and Jerry’s for a quick scoop on the way to the terminal. What other sweet insights did you pick up at WOMM-U? Share them in the comments.

By Jim Storer, Principal & Founder, The Community Roundtable

The next module in our online WOMM-COM community manager certificate program starts next week. We’re really excited to bring together such an amazing group of practitioners to teach this course. Check out the instructors and we’re sure you’ll agree.

The community manager course is designed to explore the competencies of the Community Maturity Model in depth and is perfect for;

• WOMM COM Module 1 graduates looking to extend their knowledge and/or begin to explore what it means to take the next step in their career.
• Current community managers looking to round out their knowledge and insure their skills are up to date.
• Executives and managers looking to better understand the community manager role and how to best leverage it in their organizations.

Each session in the course is taught by an experienced practitioner and includes case study examples of key principles. Sessions include:

Market Context - Explore what an entire community ecosystem looks like, including discussion of employee, partner and customer communities. Specific community use cases will also be covered.

Strategy - Deep dive into goal setting, target member analysis, competitive analysis and ecosystem mapping.

Culture and Leadership - Identify common cultural hurdles to successful community and how to handle them. Review of community leadership strategies, including emergent leadership and scaffolding.

Policies and Governance - Discussion includes developing enterprise standards for social media escalation, triage and response, playbooks, and how to best partner with legal/compliance.

Community Management (Part 1) - Review of recruitment and engagement strategies, return motivators, and recognition and reward systems. Discussion of relationship mapping and it’s important to community managers.

Community Management (Part 2) - Deep dive on your community ecosystem, including examples of a hub-spoke strategy with Facebook, 3rd party and internal community. Review of different social listening approaches and how they build strong community.

Content and Programs - Review of the critical components of a successful content strategy, including user vs. expert generated, evergreen, re-purposing and welcome content. Discussion of program development, including editorial calendars, modalities and capturing content from programs.

Tools - Deep dive on the evaluation, selection and implementation of various social tools. Review of mobile considerations and new tools just hitting the market.

Metrics and Measurement - Discussion that includes aligning measures with business goals, community health, influencer measurement, reporting and storytelling with data.

Program Management - This capstone course reviews key concepts and provides context on how community managers fit in the organizational model, the importance of internal evangelism, developing advocates and building a solid persona as the “face person” of the organization.

Register now or please pass along to someone who could benefit from this training.

Originally published on FeedMagnet’s Blog

By Frank Burns, VP Solutions and Client Services, FeedMagnet

Next week, marketing experts from all industries will converge in Chicago for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s annual WOMM-U. Students (including the FeedMagnet team!) will learn and share best practices for engaging brand followers through social media.

FeedMagnet & WOMMA Partnership

Of course, FeedMagnet is an ideal tool for marketing teams who want to find, curate, and amplify customer word of mouth. That’s why we’ve partnered with WOMMA as a sponsor of the WOMM-U event and provider of social aggregation displays. With such a social media-savvy audience using the channel to document and discuss the industry, FeedMagnet’s visualization of the conversation will simplify viewing and contributing to the buzz. We expect the FeedMagnet experience to thrill and inspire brand leaders as they learn and brainstorm ways to improve their marketing strategies.

Join the conversation with our WOMM-U web and mobile-optimized experience.

We saw the power of curated social display last year, at WOMMA’s Summit. Read the recap of that event here. There will probably be even more staggering engagement stats this time out, but more importantly we’ll come back refreshed and full of new passion for helping our clients create custom brand experiences by leveraging word of mouth.

For more details on FeedMagnet’s partnership with WOMMA, please reference this sweet press release.

See you in Chicago!

BY KARA MARTENS, Social Media Manager, Shoutlet, Inc.

In school we were taught that a good story includes the five W’s: who, what, when, where, and why. Those W’s are also great questions to ask when planning content for your social media efforts.

• Who are you trying to reach?
• What drives them? What content are you creating?
• When is the best time to engage your customers?
• Where should you reach them – which social networks and marketing channels are best?
• Why are you running a certain campaign, writing specific content, asking for a particular call to action? What’s your goal?

Next week, marketers and social media pros gather in Chicago at a new kind of school, WOMM-U. May 7-9, WOMMA’s WOMM-U Conference will take students through a rich curriculum of panels and sessions to help brands answer the five W’s in social media and create customer experiences that reach their customers and spark word of mouth.

One extra question that tags along with the five Ws is “how.” In social media, the how relates to the execution – the technology and processes used to realize social campaigns, do community outreach and reach customer service objectives. Social media tools are a big part of the “how,” and one session at WOMM-U tackles this. On Tuesday, May 8, panelists Lauren McCadney, Sr. Manager, Social Media, CDW; Jason Weaver, CEO, Shoutlet; and Bill Piwonka, VP of Marketing, Janrain, Inc. will discuss “Tools in Content Marketing.”

Often the path to finding the right tools in social media can be a winding one. When it comes to social media management, monitoring and tracking, there are dozens of factors that go into selecting tools that help you execute your unique social media plans. Internally, the right tools can streamline your social workflow across your company, save time and make it easier to execute the vision you have for content. Externally, they can accelerate word of mouth in social media and supply sharing tools that allow customers and brand advocates to easily pass along their own stories about your products and brand experiences.

Who, what, when, where, and why are the main parts of a great story, including those in social media content and outreach. Once those are established, the question becomes: “How are we going to do it?”

To get this discussion kicked off before WOMM-U classes begin, join us Wednesday, May 2 at 11 A.M. Central for #WOMMAchat, one of three Twitter chats leading up to the conference. Hop into the chat to discuss the impact tools can have on word of mouth in social media, ask questions about how to choose the right social media tool and hear from others about what’s worked for them. We hope to see you on Twitter and in Chicago!

It’s not too late to register for WOMM-U, which is packed with great sessions, tailgating, even zombies (yes, zombies!). Get details on registration here.

___________________________________________________

#WOMMAchat Schedule:

Kara Martens, Social Media Manager, Shoutlet
Wed., May 2
12 am ET/11 am CT

Gemma Craven, EVP, New York Group Director, Social@Ogilvy
Thurs., May 3
12 am ET/11 am CT

By Jordan Viator Slabaugh, Director of Social Media, Spredfast

As marketers and word of mouth practitioners, most of us love conferences. They deliver new information and best practices that help inspire  us step up our game for when we return to our day jobs to get the ball rolling on new initiatives. But most importantly, they remove the barriers of time, geography, stature, and put us all together to network and make connections.

On the other hand, there never seems to be enough time to meet everyone you want to connect with and we always leave with a few lingering questions we didn’t have the chance to ask.

WOMMA is taking the conversation to Twitter, that other venue that breaks down barriers of time, geography, and stature. This will help members and WOMM-U conference attendees connect and network before the event begins.

On Tuesday May 1, WOMMA is kicking off their #WOMMAchat series, helping promote dialogue, social connections, and idea sharing leading up to the conference. I’m excited to share that I’ll be leading Tuesday’s conversation, focusing on social business in the enterprise.

Whether you are a WOMMA member, attending the conference, or just a social strategist looking to connect with other like-minded professionals, join us to:

• Ask questions about social business and how to scale it across your company.
• Probe deeper into how companies are using social media beyond just marketing.
• Inquire about what leading businesses are doing to scale social media efforts from 10 to 100 to 1,000 people to make social part of their business DNA.
• Share your own insights and tips based on success you’ve had with social programs.
• Get a chance to network with and hear from others attending WOMM-U before you land in Chicago and start putting faces with @names.

I’m stoked to chat with and learn from the community in next week’s series. Have a burning question or inspiring idea before then? Ping me @jordanv. Or better yet, start the dialogue a little early with the #WOMMAchat hashtag.

Looking forward to connecting, online and in Chicago with the people who teach and inspire me year round – my fellow WOMMA members.

—————

#WOMMAchat Schedule:

Jordan Viator Slabaugh, Social Media Director, Spredfast
Tues., May 1
12 am ET/11 am CT

Kara Martens, Social Media Manager, Shoutlet
Wed., May 2
12 am ET/11 am CT

Gemma Craven, EVP, New York Group Director, Social@Ogilvy
Thurs., May 3
12 am ET/11 am CT

By Jacob Hurwith, Marketing and Social Media Coordinator, WOMMA

The two hottest buzz words nowadays are content and engagement. However, in order to drive engagement, a brand needs relevant content. Whether it’s through a blog, webinar, email, social media or an event, content is what underpins everything. Content is king and given its relevancy, we have crafted WOMM-U, our upcoming conference,  around the most significant aspect in the marketing world today.

Not All Content is Good

As all marketers should know, not all content is good content. Companies should not just tweet to tweet and post to post. There must be a purpose to each and every message that is sent. Figuring out what that message is can be a difficult process. What do we want our audience to know? Is this content sharable? Is this message worth sending? Will people care about what we are saying? Is this message different than the rest? All these questions and more will be discussed, dissected, exemplified and put in the forefront at WOMM-U, May 7-9 in Chicago.

The Consumer Decision Journey

One of the most difficult aspects of the marketing world is to displace customer preference. In our “Content: The Consumer Decision Journey” session, Anna Lingeris of The Hershey Company and George Gallate of Euro RSCG 4G, will show that content is the sharable asset that can cut through the clutter and make people rethink brand preferences. At the heart of it all – content.

The decision journey can be a long one for any consumer. The message they receive via email, mobile, Facebook, Twitter, online and offline need to differ. At WOMM-U, Jamie Herko Mann of Microsoft Office Communities and Influencers and Kathy Baughman of ComBlu will detail how consumers look towards different arenas across the B2B decision journey and successful marketers need segmentation to reach their target audience. At the forefront of it all is content. It is only through relevant content that all these channels can produce successful leads driving your ROI.

People Like Entertainment

Content can be used in other forms as well. Comedy is built on it and the best comedians in the Windy City will show you how at WOMM-U. Chicago’s legendary Second City comedy troop will provide a unique window into their time-tested, no-hold-barred approach to innovation through co-creation. The impromptu comedians will skewer some of the problems with content creation today, share their philosophy and show how it works for some of the most innovative marketers in America.

The Time is Now

Content is more than words on a screen. It drives conversation. It drives engagement. In some cases, it even drives humor. No matter the case, WOMM-U tackles it all. The king of the castle has ruled and the time for relevant content is now.

On Thursday April 12, we at WOMMA were proud to announce a partnership with Bazaarvoice designed to develop new industry standards that strengthen the integrity of consumer-generated review content.

As all of our dedicated readers know, our mission since WOMMA’s inception has not changed. People like to talk and word of mouth marketing continues to be the most effective form of marketing across the globe. However, stealth marketing practices such as creating fake usernames, posting inaccurate reviews and spreading false rumors are all very much relevant. As WOMMA President Suzanne Fanning noted, this partnership will further advance our goal of creating a transparent and honest marketing industry.

“WOMMA and BazaarVoice are working to build an environment of trust between consumers and marketers,” Fanning said. “This partnership with Bazaarvoice not only creates an actionable tool to promote honest and transparency, but also sends a clear message to consumers and brands that ratings and reviews will remain a powerful tool for informing consumer behavior.”

Brands around the globe recognize that the authentic voice of consumers drive business. Consumers trust these forms of communication as opposed to the standard advertisement or editorial. This fact is demonstrated each and every day. A new family moves to town and is looking for the best pizza joint. Before looking up their menu or checking reviews online, they first look to their friends. Same principle applies for a hair stylist or a school or a gym and so on and so on. People look to people they know for advice.

The same standard relates to word of mouth. When small businesses are looking to implement a new mobile or social media strategy, they look to industry experts for advice. But what if those industry experts are not following the strict industry standards we have all abided by for the last one hundred years? False information will begin to go viral and spread throughout the globe – eroding consumer trust bit by bit.

Sadly enough, these practices are occurring each and every day. The WOMMA and Bazaarvoice partnership will  work to end these stealth marketing tactics. The new standards will ensure that social content continues to benefit brands and consumers by remaining transparent and accurate.

Originally published on Capture the Conversation by Room 214, a social media agency

Many Facebook advertisers were hit this week with some new and largely unannounced changes to the popular ads platform. Moving forward, ad images will be limited to dimensions of 99 x 72 (previously 110 x80), and body copy will be limited to 90 text characters, down from 135.

Facebook Ad Text Best Practices:

As it was often stressed before, simplicity will be of the utmost importance in the text for ads. This is even more important with reduced space to work with now. Make sure you only refer to one offer or subject in your text, and do it in as few words as possible.

The best copy won’t be a statement about your company/brand/product, but will refer to an offer, play off of the target’s ego, or ask a compelling question.

Facebook Image Best Practices:

You have about 1/10th of a second for your ad image to make an impact on viewers. Make sure your image is fascinating. Stick to visually interesting subjects, smiling faces (human connection), or aspirational items. Remember: the image also must be relevant to your ad or it will get turned down.

Great tips on ads in the slideshare below: