A company’s social media policy serves, in its simplest form, as a guide to how a business, its employees, and anyone else speaking on behalf of the business should share opinions, beliefs, and recommendations with customers online.

Fast Company magazine recently examined social media policies from a range of businesses and found there “there is little consistency in the policies” and “the complexity of a corporate social media policy depends on the robustness of the corporate culture.”

Surprisingly, Walmart’s social media policy, especially with Twitter, is decidedly hands-off. Best Buy’s policy includes a long list of “dont’s.” CNN’s policy is rather strict. Read the full Fast Company article for great insights into the do’s and don’ts of drafting a social media policy.

WOMMA members have told us designing an effective social media policy isn’t easy. It requires a balance between using proper legal guidance with relevant marketing practices.

Recently, we held a webinar sharing insights into designing a social media policy. On the webinar were two lawyers and one marketer. Anthony Diresta (WOMMA’s General Counsel, Partner with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP) and Luis Xavier Hernandez-Ochoa (Category Regional Counsel at Unilever) represented the lawyer side and I represented the marketer’s point of view.

This webinar coincided with the release of WOMMA’s Guide to Designing a Social Media Policy (.pdf file). Like the webinar, this guide offers a legal view and a marketer’s view. The legal view in the WOMMA guide comes in the form of a lawyer-friendly template policy. The marketer’s view is a three-pager detailing important decisions a company must make in developing their social media policy.

For an overview of both the legal side and the marketing side to designing an effective social media policy, watch this archived webinar…

Very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday about the “Selling Power of Friendship.” The article outlines how Facebook intends to boost revenue by selling targeted and personalized ads based upon the voluminous data it has collected on the likes and Facebook activity of its users. It’s called “Social Context Advertising.”

For example, when Facebook users “like” an ad, Facebook could feature the names of your friends who have indicated they “like” the ad/brand somewhere in the design of the ad.

Shiv Singh, notable social media researcher/practitioner, says, “The social ads are interesting, because you feel that you are connecting to a brand through an endorsement from someone.”

It’s clear from Sheryl Sandberg’s quote that Facebook understands the power word-of-mouth has in improving the effectiveness of marketing.

However, Augie Ray from Forrester brings up a good point about the value of a Facebook fan. Augie says “there is no intrinsic value to a Facebook fan” that is “… until the brand does something to create value with Facebook fans.”

Marketers must not confuse “liking” a brand with “championing” and “advocating” a brand. It’s simple and quick for a person to click a button indicating they “like” a brand. But is it truly meaningful?

Word of mouth takes on a whole different meaning when a person goes out of their way to share their appreciation for a brand by talking about it over happy hour drinks with co-workers, during a dinner get-together with neighbors, and on the phone with a good friend. That’s the true selling power of friendship!

Last month I wrote an article for the Social Media Examiner sharing three steps marketers must take to keep word of mouth credible in social media marketing. The article addresses long-standing WOMMA Ethics Code themes of disclosing relationships, honesty of opinion, and monitoring compliance.

To read the article, click on the image below…

A theme that’s popping up more and more with word of mouth marketers is the strategy of using customer service as the new marketing. Zappos has built its business around a customer service culture. Comcast has focused on customer service to help repair its brand image. And, Best Buy uses customer service as a differentiator.

At WOMMA’s recent School of WOM conference nearly every presentation from the keynotes to the breakout sessions touched up customer service as a way to make a brand more talkable.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Dana Mattioli writes about how “some executives see a chance to woo frustrated customers from rivals through word of mouth and by creating pleasant experiences.”

Mattioli details how Comcast is improving its customer service, resulting in satisfied customers, higher sales, and no doubt … more positive word of mouth.

“Cable provider Comcast is bolstering customer service operations in an effort to retain customers and sell higher-priced services. The company has been trying to improve customer service for the past couple of years, but it’s still a sore spot: earlier this year The Consumerist, a consumer issues website, granted Comcast its “Worst Company in America” award.

In January, Comcast started putting its 24,000 call-center agents through additional training and has told call-center supervisors to spend 70% of their time coaching their agents, more than double the amount of time they spent before. So far, Comcast says it’s seen a decrease in repeat customer calls—queries about the same problem—and in customer requests to speak to a supervisor.

‘Our primary focus has been on ensuring that we’re delivering superior customer service and that clears the way for us to be able to up-sell,’ says Tina Waters, senior vice president of customer operations at Comcast.”

[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal article | June 7, 2010]

PROMO Magazine recently published an article I wrote about the natural laws that govern word of mouth marketing. To understand these natural laws, we need to revisit basic physics.

In school we learned about Isaac Newton’s three natural laws of motion. These laws explain how and why objects move. These laws can also explain how and why word of mouth marketing can move brands from being unknown to well known.

Law of Inertia
Newton’s first law of motion tells us an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion. This law of inertia applies directly to word of mouth marketing because conversation at rest tends to stay at rest while conversation in action tends to stay in action. If a company does nothing to encourage people to talk, no one will talk.

Law of Acceleration
With Newton’s first law, we learned a force is required to spark momentum. Newton’s second law, the law of acceleration, explains how much force is required to spark movement. The larger an object is, the more force needed to move the object. Conversely, the smaller the object, the less force needed to move the object.

The correlation to word of mouth marketing is simple. The larger a brand is, the more marketing muscle needed to generate conversations about the brand. On the other hand, the smaller the brand, the less marketing muscle needed to spark conversations about the brand.

The Law of Reaction
Newton’s third law of motion tells us for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. There is a parallel natural law that governs word of mouth marketing as it relates to delivering great customer service. This marketing law states: for every action by a customer, there should be a genuine and appropriate reaction from a business. These appropriate reactions take the form of a response, a rescue attempt, or a relaying of information from a company to an individual customer.

>> READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

According to Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) president Bob Barocci, “The single biggest opportunity in the history of consumer marketing lays dormant.”

The opportunity Bob speaks of is LISTENING.

If listening is the single biggest opportunity in the history of consumer marketing, then why is it such an untapped resource? Why aren’t more brands engaging with customers through listening-inspired marketing activities?

Those questions and more are answered and explored in THE LISTENING PLAYBOOK written by Steve Rappaport, ARF’s Knowledge Solutions Director.

This worthwhile book presents listening-inspired marketing to help brands solve marketing challenges ranging from maintaining sales momentum to co-creating new products to understanding shifts in the marketplace to so much more. 30 case study examples are detailed showing how brands are applying listening-inspired marketing to impact their business.

Also detailed are do-it-yourself and full-service vendor methods of listening to the online and offline conversations customers are having about brands.

It really is more than a book to read, it’s a book to use… hence it’s called a “playbook.”

The first step in this playbook on applying listening-inspired marketing is to… LISTEN. Easier said than done as The Listening Playbook points out. Some brands aren’t open to listening for fear of what they may hear. Other brands are overwhelmed by the voluminous amounts of conversation data found online. Many brands are unsure how best to positively impact financials through listening. And, some brands want to listen but don’t know how.

To assist brands in their listening approach, The Listening Playbook explains the various do-it-yourself search/monitoring tools, text analytics software services, and full-service listening platform vendors.

That’s helpful information but the most valuable information in the playbook are the case study examples of how brands are applying listening-inspired marketing activities.

For example, we learn how MINI USA analyzed online conversations and discovered MINI owners “… viewed their car as a blank canvas onto which they could project their personality, through customizations and modding [slang for ‘modifying’], and enjoy doing it and sharing it virtually and in-person. With that listening insight, MINI USA developed various activities to foster more sharing opportunities within the MINI community of customers.

We also learn exactly how CDW, a computer hardware and accessories brand, listened to conversations its customers were having on three company-driven online communities. Based upon what CDW heard from its customers, the company overhauled its cold call marketing strategies and designed new customer relationship strategies.

JetBlue’s listening strategies, along with scores of other companies, are detailed in The Listening Playbook showing how the airline uses Twitter to stay ahead of potential customer service issues and react to any customer service issue flare-ups happening 24/7.

As I mentioned, The Listening Playbook is a very helpful and valuable resource from any company wanting to improve its business from listening to the conversations customers are having and will continue to have about their company.

A printed copy can be purchased online at Amazon and Lulu.

A bite-size chunk can be had for free by reading (or downloading) Chapter 1 off Scribd.com.

The ARF Listening Playbook - Chapter 1, Essentials of Listening

DISCLOSURE: I paid for my copy of THE LISTENING PLAYBOOK. WOMMA is friends with ARF. A session at the upcoming School of WOM conference will be co-presented by WOMMA and ARF. I liked ALF. Liked that ALF was featured on a recent episode of CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory.” I also like the smell of mayo in the morning.

Influentials are among us. They are known as thought-leaders, trendsetters, mavens, sneezers, etc. Influentials can help spark word-of-mouth conversations leading to a tipping point of sales success. However, It’s not easy for marketers to identify influentials and measure the impact of their influence.

In WOMMA’s Measurement & Metrics Guidebook, Idil Cakim, VP of Interactive Media at GolinHarris, shares her views on “The Influence Factor” and how brands can engage, monitor, and measure influencer marketing programs.

This short Q&A will give you a bite-size chunk of Idil’s perspective on designing and delivering influencer marketing programs.

1. What constitutes influence offline and online?
“The fundamentals of offline and online influence are the same: perceived knowledge of the influencer, credibility and hence trust. In the offline world, we have more access to visual, cultural and social clues that help us assess the influence factor. Meanwhile online, we have more third-party resources and published statements that can help us assess a given source’s influence and authority. Whether online or offline, influencers are experts who know how to spread their messages either through peer-to-peer conversations, organized activities or publications.”

2. Any pitfalls to Influencer Marketing?
“The most common pitfall is sharing an idea or a product with too few influencers and expecting to move the needle. An influencer is bound to take the message further than the average person. However brands may need to engage hundreds of influencers at a time to have quantitative results that show the impact of their efforts.

Lastly, thinking in terms of campaigns with limited times for outreach undercuts the value brands/organizations can derive from influencer relations. Spot outreach is fine, but there needs to be ongoing communication between the brand and its influencers, just like any healthy relationship.”

3. What are three steps a brand should take to design a better influencer marketing program?
First, determine your own influencer criteria and make sure you can recruit enough influencers who can create noticeable change.

Third, plan for ongoing engagement. Sustain authentic communications and continuously offer value to your influencers through news, information, first-to-try types of offers.”

**********
BONUS COVERAGE:
On a recent WOMMA Brands Council Jam Session, Idil shared more practical insights about Influencer Marketing. The following SlideShare presentation includes snippets from this recent webinar.

It’s one thing for a brand to get customers talking with word of mouth marketing. It’s another thing for a brand to understand the tone and attitudinal undertones of the conversations people are having about the brand.

As VP of Product at Scout Labs, Margaret Francis is responsible for designing online listening tools to help brands better understand consumer sentiment in online word of mouth conversations.

For the WOMMA Measurement & Metrics Guidebook, Margaret contributed an article about “mining social media for consumer opinion” to develop “business intelligence” and “measure marketing impact.” This article is a deep dive into the budding field of Sentiment Analysis.

I asked Margaret a few questions to help us better understand her perspective on harvesting, analyzing, and measuring consumer sentiment about brands.

Explain the importance for why a brand should do Sentiment Analysis.
Margaret Francis (MF): “A brand like Nike needs to know if people like them or not, but on the whole they probably know that many people associate them with favorable qualities that support their brand promise. I’m sure they have a brand tracker that measures overall Nike brand perception in much the same way as geologists study glaciers, looking for long term evidence of movement. Traditional sentiment analysis falls into this genre of study. It’s interesting data, but not for every day, and mainly intended for the very few people at Nike that have custody of ‘the brand.’

Also, it isn’t just brands that need sentiment analysis. How do consumers feel about use of sustainable materials, Chinese knock-offs, personalization, marathons, Spandex, the color pink, or a sponsored athlete’s extramarital affairs? These are not strictly “brand” inquiries but they are very important questions for marketing and other functional areas that deal with consumer preferences- areas like product development and customer service.”

What are some absolute “No No’s” businesses must consider when creating and using a Sentiment Analysis measurement process?
(MF): “There are known problems with having humans decide what is and is not positive/ negative sentiment:

That said, there’s a reason traditional PR firms have stuck to the same methodology for a long time: They do sentiment analysis only on blue chip media pieces, using only in-house resources with strict guidelines, so analysis is limited in scope and expense and absolutely defensible. This is understandable but hardly forward looking. The rich nuggets of market intelligence derived from social media are a source of competitive advantage that no one can afford to ignore.”

Talk about a specific brand that has benefitted from doing Sentiment Analysis.
(MF): “It’s hard for me to give you some of the more compelling examples I know of, because the brands concerned view those examples as confidential business intelligence. Let me give you a hypothetical example. It isn’t a mystery that there is a furor right now over the Toyota brand due to the ongoing recalls on multiple makes and models. Any user of Scout Labs could plug in a search for the brand “Toyota” and see that there’s been a shift from positive to negative opinion over the past 6 months, and read consumer comments about the reasons why. Notice the shift from overall positive to overall negative sentiment for Toyota:

Platforms like Scout Labs exist to inform brand strategists, not replace them. In the hands of the right decision makers, the kind of real time sentiment analysis Scout Labs can provide on any word, brand, product or phenomenon is very powerful marketing intelligence.”

*** Learn more about WOMMA’s MEASUREMENT & METRICS GUIDEBOOK ***

David Rabjohns has spent a career digging deep into discovering why consumers have developed passion around brands. Today, as the ceo of MotiveQuest, he helps companies understand the online passion conversation consumers are having about brands they love (and hate).

For the WOMMA Measurement & Metrics Guidebook, David shares insights into how to measure consumer advocacy. It’s a smart read and WOMMA members can download a (.pdf) copy of this guide. (A bound copy is also available.)

To learn more about David’s angle into consumer advocacy, I asked him a few questions… his responses are below.

What constitutes “advocacy” as it relates to marketing?
“When a conversation about a brand results in a personal recommendation for the brand, advocacy happens. Our research and client experience clearly shows a direct correlation exists between advocacy and sales. Greater advocacy leads to more personal recommendations that result in higher sales. At MotiveQuest, we’ve been able to track 72% of sales of a major liquor brand back to advocacy. In other words, marketing can spark conversations but advocacy can deliver sales.”

When measuring advocacy, what’s the most important consideration?
“It’s important to first distinguish between ‘participants’ and ‘advocates.’ Participants will talk about a brand while advocates will go a step or two further and recommend a brand. With that explained, the most important consideration when measuring advocacy is tracking the total number of advocates for a brand. Successful brands clearly have more advocates tomorrow than they did yesterday.”

Recently, the Edelman Trust Barometer revealed a significant decline in people believing their friends are a credible source of information… what’s your take on Edelman’s findings?
“Marketing people are abusing social media and thus reducing trust. Too many marketers are measuring social media success by the number of friends, fans, and followers a brand has. The term “friend” no longer has the same personal meaning it once did. Influencer marketing strategies have helped to also erode trust. Trust amongst friends and consumers depends on people having real, organic, honest conversations with each other on the web and in person.”

*** Learn more about WOMMA’s MEASUREMENT & METRICS GUIDEBOOK ***

WOMMA recently published a MEASUREMENT & METRICS GUIDEBOOK sharing practical insights into quantifying offline and online word of mouth. WOMMA Members have access to a free download of the paper. A bound version of the Guidebook is available for everyone.

Over the next two weeks we’ll be publishing short Q&As with some of the marketers, researchers, and academics who have authored papers in the Guidebook.

We’re talking first with Jennifer Voisard, Community Manager and Analyst with ComBlu, about her piece on Cost Deflection. Voisard’s paper explains the financial benefits to how and why businesses can use social media engagement with customers and customer communities to reduce business expenses.

Your paper shares insights on applying the “Cost Deflection” model to online and offline WOM. Why is this of importance to a marketer?
“It is no secret that Marketers are on the hook to prove what we instinctively know to be true, that WOM produces substantial ROI. This was the catalyst for creating this Guidebook. The reason I focused on Cost Deflection was to offer Marketers a different way to approach this daunting task.

The thinking needs to go beyond increasing web traffic, coupon redemption rates, producing a funny viral video, hosting a successful house party or having a large fan base on Facebook. These are important indicators, but they don’t give you program ROI. Marketing can add real value by designing and integrating their engagement strategies based on the actual KPI’s of the business. No matter the economic climate, Cost Deflection always helps the bottom line and can make for a happy and receptive CEO come budget time.” (Jennifer Voisard)

What’s a key step businesses must do to incorporate a marketing-focused Cost Deflection model?
“Everyone has heard the phrase it takes a village. Well, it applies here to. The biggest key to success is the ability to break down organizational silos. Form an integrated team across multiple business units such as: Marketing, Customer Service, Engineering and Product Development for example.

In order for cross-functional collaboration to occur in an efficient manner, you’ll likely need buy-in at the executive level. Otherwise you may find yourself herding cats, and you run the risk of disappointing your customers by failing to effectively manage their feedback and most importantly their expectations.” (Jennifer Voisard)

In your opinion, what company has found success implementing a marketing-focused Cost Deflection model?
“I would say that there are some divisions in Microsoft that get this. The example I highlighted in the chapter was of an early pilot program within the Online Services group. Since then, they have formally implemented their new operational model. Today, their KPI’s speak for themselves, and we are starting to see program adoption increase.

WOM programs deepen the relationship between customer and brand. I think any company that embraces customer feedback and leverages the passion and expertise of their brand advocates, can have a successful program like this.” (Jennifer Voisard)

*** Learn more about WOMMA’s MEASUREMENT & METRICS GUIDEBOOK ***