By Amy Taylor, Lead Copywriter, Brains on Fire

Reports indicate millions of Americans are logging offline for good. They’re putting down their smartphones, silencing their ringers and stepping away from their Twitter streams - in order to rejoin their real lives.

For years, brands have been putting their eggs in various online baskets. Some were early adopters, others waited for the water to warm up a bit before they hopped in. Many jumped on the bandwagon in search of a quick fix and a magical marketing bullet.

But there is no quick fix. There is no magic bullet. Why? Because consumers live in the real world where real life is complicated. And real life happens offline.

Unlike the latest shiny new media tool, widget or app of the day, true word of mouth marketing is founded on real relationships between brand and consumer. It celebrates transparency, trust and community – things that can’t be bought, rushed or manufactured.

BRANDS EMBRACING REAL LIFE

Real life is “in.” Regardless of whether you’re on vacation, dining out or attending a wedding, an increased focus on being present in the moment is radiating through just about every facet of life – and the marketing world is no exception.

Shining the spotlight on a couple brands doing “real life” really well…

The National Center for Family Literacy*

Brought to life by the National Center for Family Literacy, Wonderopolis.org has sparked a new conversation that begins online, but inspires families and classrooms to engage in offline learning by exploring wonder in their lives. Each day, Wonderopolis visitors are greeted by the daily Wonder of the Day®, a knowledge-nugget exploring everything from why flamingos are pink to how many peanuts are in a jar of peanut butter to the invention of the next great candy bar. The site has given families and classrooms a way to make the most of each and every moment together by trying out an idea, creating a masterpiece or imagining the possibilities. In Wonderopolis learning begins online, continues offline and lasts for a lifetime.

Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean’s new “The Sea is Calling” campaign urges all of us all to unplug and get away from it all by getting back in touch with ourselves. The ads encourage travelers to put down their cell phones in exchange for the “shellphone,” claiming “You don’t recharge it. It recharges you.” If you’ve been waiting for a chance to step out from behind your iPhone and take the unplugged vacation of your dreams – here’s your chance.

SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR WOM?

When I think about the future of WOM, I see the Return to Real Life as the dawning of a new era, and an emergence of WOM in its purest form.

I believe people will begin to apply much stricter filters to the messages and marketing they invite into their lives and wallets.

I believe brands that dare to show their humanity will be welcomed into our hearts and homes.

I believe people will want to connect with brands that make them feel like friends and family.

I believe people will want to connect with brands that are loved by their friends and family.

I believe people will start turning down the volume on brands that talk AT them, and tuning into brands that not only talk WITH them, but listen TO them, too.

I believe the most successful brands will stop focusing on toys and technology, and start focusing on human beings and the human experience.

Amy Taylor is the Lead Copywriter at Brains on Fire

Follow her on Twitter @NoMeatballs

*Brains on Fire client

By Andy Levitt, Founder and CEO of HealthTalker

Many people in the pharma world have been champing at the bit for the FDA to provide guidance on how to use social media in the promotion of prescription products.

For what it’s worth, I think that the use of social channels in the Rx space is widely over-hyped, and that the real opportunities lie in old fashioned, face-to-face word of mouth dialogue.  (Disclaimer: my company, HealthTalker, provides WOM services for life science companies).

Manufacturers and many of the agencies that support them have wondered how to avoid regulatory headaches but still tap into the power of Facebook, Twitter and the like, hoping to strike gold with these dynamic channels leading to noteworthy promotion and increased market share.

I actually find the whole thing a bit laughable as it suggests that people in the industry have become too afraid to think on their own, to apply good judgment to marketing and promotion, and to push the envelope a bit further.  That statement might anger some people and offend a few more, but at the end of the day the FDA will never tell us exactly what to do; they will only provide draft guidance.

The way the game works is that marketers will try to expand their reach; MLR teams will push back; and in the end, the most effective outcome will be finding the solid balance between appropriate promotion and persuasive marketing, no matter the medium.  But taking no action, standing on the sidelines and waiting for permission will never be the winning approach.

Have all of the social marketing secrets for pharma been revealed with the arrival of this new document?

No. When you take the time to review the guidance, there is actually very little here that will satisfy the curious and the hopeful.

Perhaps even more upsetting is that there is a perception that the FDA actually provided guidelines for social media in this document - when in fact, the entire emphasis of the document is about off-label use of products and how companies can adequately and safely respond.  Should the FDA earn kudos because they made note of Twitter as a “microblogging tool”?  That was nearly the extent of their reference to social media!

The emphasis of the draft guidance is on the appropriate treatment of off-label inquiries associated with prescription products. Though the subject matter seems very narrow in its focus, the document does provide several good examples, indicating when and how a manufacturer might communicate with interested consumers.

In the document, the FDA is saying it is ok for manufacturers to respond in a truthful and balanced fashion (one might have thought that even acknowledging an inquiry about off-label use might run afoul of what the FDA would permit).  However, that response needs to be done privately. In other words, the manufacturer firm cannot promote this information to the public at large.  Furthermore, sales and marketing personnel should have no input on the response, nor should the response be promotional in nature.

Really?  An off-label response shouldn’t be promotional?  The FDA needed to issue this document to tell us that?

Forgive my frustrations here, but what people in our industry really want to know about - and where this draft document fell short - is guidance about how to address on-label uses of a product.  Had this document included that sort of information, I suspect that it would open a floodgate of social and WOM activity where pharma would finally know where they can step, and where they can’t.

Right now, there is a paralysis that hinders pharma’s ability to engage with consumers in a natural and authentic manner.  It would have been great if companies were given a morsel of information about what they can do when someone makes a post about their medication’s effectiveness, inquires about a product’s known side effects, or even says that a certain drug has made a huge difference in their life. The FDA could even call it “Social Guidelines for Our Social World.”  How catchy.

Unfortunately, those guidelines won’t be coming anytime soon – if ever.   And this latest document doesn’t get us any closer.

Looks like we’ll just need to continue to rely on common sense!

By Theresa J. Trevor, Marketing Creative Director, Amplifinity

Engaging your brand advocates can be tricky – like all of us, they can be a finicky bunch.  Some are motivated by incentives, others are not.  Some want to write recommendations, others talk about you at parties, and still others promote you on blogs.  A referral program is one tried-and-true method of engaging and, more importantly, nurturing and growing your brand advocates.  Amplifinity has defined the following 9 Critical Success factors for creating, growing and sustaining your referral program:

1. Promote the referral program often and through different channels

• Integrate your referral program promotion into all other marketing/customer service efforts.
• Send dedicated marketing messages to inform and promote the referral program.
  • We see a dramatic increase in effectiveness when potential advocates receive emails and other marketing collateral focused solely on the referral opportunity.
• Include face- to-face program promotion
  • Referral success grows significantly when organizations motivate and train employees to ask for referrals and provide them with the tools to engage with the program.

2. Offer relevant, achievable and compelling incentives to your advocates

There are a wide variety of incentives out there; find out which ones work best by asking your existing advocates, or trying a tiered reward structure that utilizes several different rewards sure to suit many different preferences.

3. Create an incentive structure that encourages people to refer as many times as possible

Tiered reward and points programs also have the benefit of keeping your advocates referring again and again.

4. Give advocates tools to make referring easy on and offline

Empower your advocates to make referrals wherever they communicate with the people in their network, ensuring your clients never miss an opportunity to earn a referral.

5. Allow prospects to accept the referred offer easily and through multiple channels, on and offline

Make it as easy as possible for your prospects to accept a referral and become a new customer, both online and offline. Multiple channels are a must!

6. Expand the referral program in different phases to include customer, employees, and partners.

Customers aren’t the only ones who can make referrals. Employees and partners can make enthusiastic and effective advocates.  And employees and partners are happy to be included in the fun.  The added bonus? It builds community within your organization on top of generating new customers.

7. Keep advocates engaged and attract new advocates by refreshing the program, and changing the incentive offer.

Launch new and different campaigns so your program never goes stale. Changing it up keeps people coming back again and again.

8. Provide visibility into the referral process.

Create a program that allows advocates to easily check referral and reward statuses, and find information about the program.

9. Implement fast, transparent and efficient reward fulfillment process

Engage a company that fulfills rewards quickly, answers advocate questions thoroughly and promptly and provides an Advocate Dashboard where advocates can check reward statuses.

Contact Theresa at ttrevor@amplifinity.com

By Drew Elovitz, Social Media Associate - Lifestyle/Consumer Division, Attention

You may recall the epic reunion between Barbie and Ken last February – I know I do. I saw the campaign everywhere, from billboards and blogs to Magnolia Bakery, and I was impressed.

At the time I was a graduate student, studying media and popular culture, and looking for a way to translate my interests (and life long Barbie fandom) into a job. With this in mind, I wanted to find out more about this highly visible and exciting campaign. Some Internet sleuthing led me to the blog of an Attention employee who had posted about Barbie and Ken’s roman-tech courtship.  A few email exchanges later, and I found myself in the Attention offices interviewing for an internship.

After interning for a few months while finishing up my thesis, I graduated and transitioned into a full-time role in the consumer and lifestyle division. I currently work with an array of Mattel products in the social sphere – and I think it’s pretty doll-tastic.

It sounds simple, doesn’t it?  Truth be told, most internships do not translate into job offers, but here are some tips I learned from my experience.

• It’s called social networking for a reason! If you’re interested in a company or passionate about a brand, reach out via social channels and make connections. You never know who might be willing to pass your resume along to HR.
• Apply now and start early. Even if you can only commit to a few days a week until school’s out, get your foot in the door before the onslaught of summer internship applications.
• Think small. The projects I worked on at Attention as an intern were much more interesting than my responsibilities as an intern at larger companies. Smaller agencies provide more hands-on opportunities and want to acquire talented employees. Your dedication and hard work won’t go unnoticed.
• Speak up. Let your supervisors know that you are excited to be there! Ask them to lunch, pick their brains, and let people know that you would love to work at the company full time. Worst-case scenario, you’ll make a few friends, get some great references, and expand your network.

So, do you have a knack for social media? Are you a pro tweeter, blogger, or share my passion for Barbie? Attention is always on the look out for great interns for our beauty, media, fashion, business, consumer, and lifestyle practices.  Feel free to reach out via email or apply via our jobs page.

You can contact Drew on twitter — @drewblahblah

Originally posted on Attention’s blog

(Click image for full sized view.)

By Pat McCarthy, Social Media Coordinator/Blog Editor, WOMMA

WOMMA Summit 2011 has come and gone. Hundreds of attendees, dozens of presenters and four invigorating Keynotes later, our attendees hit the blogosphere.

We’ve been aggregating blog posts about Summit 2011 on our Delicious page (25 and counting). Here are some of the choice posts:

Paid, Earned, Owned Media

Fred Han of Net Shelter Technology Media wrote about the Paid, Earned, Owned Media panel.

Simon Mainwaring’s We First Keynote

Shelley Stevens of Waggener Edstrom summarized Simon Mainwaring’s Keynote.

Video Takeaways

Agency Enigma posted some great video takeaways. See them all.

Listen, Trust, & Advocate

Our friends at Janrain wrote up their 8 key takeaways from Summit 2011.

The Whole Run-Down

Steve Hershberger of ComBlu wrote a very comprehensive summary of the key Summit 2011 takeaways. From content to measurement, it’s all here.

The Magic of Relationships

Robbin Phillips of Brains on Fire found the magic of marketing in relationships. And I think we finally sold her on Las Vegas

Send us your blog post about Summit 2011!

We absolutely love to see how Summit helped our attendees and their companies. If you wrote about it, comment with a link below.

See you next year! (And at School of WOM next May in Chicago)

By Chris Lubin, Community Manager, Attention

Originally published on Attention’s blog.

The ESPN comments section possesses all the characteristics of a typical comments section: it is juvenile, full of trolls, and often uninspiring. This is one of the last places you’d expect a quality meme to begin organically. But every once in a while nature intercedes and something special happens. When he wrote this post, poor Bill Williamson had no clue that his 1000-word comment would be hijacked and used to inspire one of the funniest, most ferocious memes of the year. Deadspin labeled the crazed trend #OccupyTebow. Here are some of the funnier, SFW posts:

Nickelback > Tebow

Knock Knock…Who’s there? Doesn’t matter, it’s > Tebow

Windows Vista > Tebow

myspace > Tebow

Kim Kardashian’s marriage > Tebow

Justin Beiber’s haircut > Tebow

Chewbacca attempting to keep his fur clean while taking a dump > Tebow

JarJar Binks>Tebow

That one dentist that doesn’t recommend Trident chewing gum for his patients that do chew gum > Tebow

If there is one guy on the planet who could generate such a craze, it is Tim Tebow. Just a week ago, the #Tebowing craze completely overtook the Internet. (ProTip: Once the object of the meme acknowledges and participates in said meme, meme is dead #RIPTebowing)

By Ben Pickering, CEO, Strutta

Originally published on Social Media Examiner

Are you planning to run a social media contest (like this one)?

Today it’s possible for anyone to achieve success engaging consumers online, thanks to the growing popularity and relative ease of execution of social media promotions.

The fact that anyone can run a promotion doesn’t mean that everyone should, and it certainly doesn’t mean that a promotion guarantees social media success. However, if executed as part of a comprehensive social media strategy, social media contests can produce tremendous results no matter how large or small your business.

So if you’re thinking of running a contest or sweepstakes, here are some key considerations.

Start With the End in Mind

Before jumping into a social media promotion, there are several important questions to ask:

• What are your marketing objectives? Be clear and realistic about what you hope to accomplish. Are you looking to generate leads or Likes, engage or activate your existing user base or reach a new audience?
• What is your budget? Yes, social media promotions can be executed at a relatively low cost. But budget considerations should guide your decision on the type of promotion you choose to run and will impact your ability to achieve certain outcomes.
• Where are you on the consumer engagement pyramid? Assess what type of promotion is right for you based on the level of engagement you expect from your users.

Consumer Engagement Model for Promotions

At the base of the pyramid is the traditional enter-to-win format. This is a tried-and-true contest model and can be a great place to get started online. Whether you have 100 or 100,000 fans on your Facebook page, running a sweepstakes is an easy way to increase the number of Likes on your page. This expands the audience for your Facebook communications and builds a fan base for future promotions.

As you move up the pyramid, you’ll see a decrease in the number of participants but a deeper level of engagement and richer content. It’s also important to remember that the number of entries is not a sole benchmark of your promotion’s success. If you run a promotion with public voting, you’re likely to see at least 10 times the number of voters as entrants.

Using terminology originally coined in Forrester’s Social Technographics report, there are three distinct audiences that will engage with your promotion: Spectators, Joiners and Creators. All three groups should be accounted for.

• Spectators may see a shared link from a friend and click through to your site but their interaction will likely stop there. For these people, you want to ensure you have a well-designed user interface and clear messaging, whether they ultimately choose to engage at the next level or simply leave with your brand top of mind.
• Joiners are likely to participate in a low-barrier format such as a sweepstakes and may engage further up the pyramid through voting, commenting and sharing.
• Creators are the people who are the target for any user-generated content contest. The percentage of online users who are content creators is significantly higher now than it was just a few years ago. Still, you must make it as easy as possible for people to participate.

Knowing your audience is essential when selecting the type of promotion you wish to run. Once you’ve determined the type that’s right for you, it’s important to communicate the what, why and how of your promotion: What is it all about? Why should I participate? And how do I enter / win?

Plan, Prepare and Prepare for the Unplanned

With social media promotions, you can reap the benefits of viral or word-of-mouth marketing, but it’s still essential to have a well-thought-out marketing plan to support your campaign. It may sound obvious, but when launching your promotion, you must drive traffic to your destination. I often remind our clients not to fall victim to the “Field of Dreams Fallacy”—the idea that “if I build it, they will come.”

Utilize the channels available to you, be that social media, paid media or promotional partners. Don’t overlook any opportunities to get the word out. Do you have a regular email newsletter or a point of sale display?

Participation at the outset will generate the ROI that comes from social sharing. And remember that your existing customers are most likely to engage. By targeting them first, you can build momentum that will spread through their social networks.

While we all hope our promotion will “go viral,” it’s not something you can bank on. Nevertheless, it’s important to plan for the scenario in which it does. If you’re running a photo contest and plan to moderate all of the submissions, are you prepared to handle the potential volume? If you’re running a contest on Facebook, are you prepared to manage the community dialogue?

One of the biggest topics people get concerned about when it comes to planning a contest is rules and regulations. This topic is worthy of a blog post of its own, but the short version is that with some foresight this should not pose a major obstacle to launching your promotion.

For those looking to run a promotion on Facebook, it’s important to be familiar with Facebook’s Promotional Guidelines and/or work with someone who is. This article by Mari Smith provides a good overview of what you need to know about Facebook promotions.

Execution Over Concept

Why do so many businesses still have a container at the register to drop a business card in for a raffle? Because it’s easy to participate and administer. Don’t get me wrong; I love cutting-edge promotional concepts. But I have seen time and again that too much of a big idea can take focus away from what’s really core to the promotion. Keeping it simple often yields better results.

When running a social media promotion, the first rule is ensure that it’s easy to enter and easy to share. While it’s possible to accomplish this on your own, there are companies that provide tools to ensure the mechanics of a successful promotion are in place. That frees you up to be creative. Avoid overcomplicating what you’re asking users to do when they visit your promotion. Make it fun, personal and accessible.

Listen, Engage and Learn

Running promotions must be part of your overall social media strategy and not approached as a one-off event. Because promotions today are inherently social, take advantage of that to engage and gather consumer insights. Add a survey question to your entry form, encourage conversation on your Facebook page, gather feedback and apply what you learn to future campaigns.

What are your experiences with online contests and social media promotions? If you have questions that you would like to see addressed in a future blog post, feel free to ask them below.

———-

Ben Pickering is the CEO of Strutta. The company offers tools for businesses to build and manage promotions and is a Facebook Preferred Developer. Twitter: @bpicks

Dr. Hamada, President of WOM Japan

About WOM Japan

WOM Japan is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing and advocating the discipline of credible word of mouth marketing in Japan.

Over 40 companies and about 30 researchers and individuals are involved in this organization.

WOM Japan was first founded for organizing study sessions and reception parties for bloggers and journalists and later became non-profit organization in July of 2009.

Currently, WOM Japan mainly focuses on analyzing of the effectiveness of domestic and global case studies and the creation of a social media disclosure guide.

Also, WOM Japan annually hosts Word of Mouth Marketing Summit in order to advance and advocate the discipline of word of mouth marketing in Japan.

———-

Interview with Dr. Hamada, President of WOM Japan

How would you compare US brands and Japanese brands and their use word of mouth marketing and social media?

I have not paid particular attention to the difference between Japanese and US brands.

Since every brand that is competing in the Japanese market would use Japanese for word of mouth marketing, I believe this is a trend that is assimilating into the local business culture.

Which word of mouth marketing practices and tools do you see the most activity and interest from Japanese brands?

I think the Highball Campaign by Suntory, one of the top whisky makers in Japan, is one of the first successful example of word of mouth marketing.

Through careful coordination of mass media and social media, the Highball cocktail, which was previously unknown, came to be served and enjoyed in most restaurants in Japan.

A popular technique is to form a base of supporters through blogging relationships, improve consumer recognition through TV ads, attract users to product websites through search engine advertisements, and achieve large scale viral marketing through YouTube and blogging. There is also a common word of mouth trend to attract customers to visit a B&M store location through listing the store location on the official website and advertising the B&M experience through word of mouth social media such as Twitter.

In one year’s time, how do you see word of mouth marketing strategy changing in Japan?

As a result of the massive earthquake which took place in March, the general welfare of the mass media industry, including TV and news publications, has been in decline. On the other hand, social media has been enjoying an increase in users. In the case of Facebook, which has been one of the largest beneficiaries in this trend, the user population in Japan has increased 5.6 fold since last August.

As a result, many companies in Japan have become increasingly interested in word of mouth marketing. However, word of mouth marketing is a trend that has only started to be recognized in Japan, and local companies are still in the stage of testing the technique.

I personally think that marketing strategies that integrate word of mouth marketing and social media will become increasingly employed.

What are WOM Japan’s plans, as a trade association, to advance the word of mouth marketing industry in Japan during the coming years?

By introducing methods and case studies in Japan, we want to share both the positive and negative sides of word of mouth marketing. By establishing a guidelines and identifying issues, we want to contribute to the development of word of mouth marketing.

word of mouth marketing has been gathering attention from not only those who are well-versed in social media, but also from the conventional marketing-centric world, which has had less interaction with social media. I think this phenomenon is proof that spreading information out to society via social media is becoming increasingly important.

What advancements are occurring in Japan that are not yet occurring in the States?

In Japan, a mobile phone internet service called “i-mode” became popular from 1999, and a diverse mobile marketing industry has developed from this invention.

In these past years, iPhone and Android users have been increasing and many companies are taking the mobile phone marketing knowledge that they have gained through i-mode and integrating this knowledge with these new platforms.

There is also a flourishing domestic social media and location-based online services industry in Japan, and usage of these services are on the rise. These services include niconico doga (niconico video), mixi, and Locatouch.

By John Ellett, CEO, nFusion

There has been a lot of “ink” recently about Google+. Is it the next big thing? Is it just another social network? Did Google finally get something new right? All common questions. My answers are “Not sure yet,” “Not exactly” and “Looks like it.”

So here are three things marketers should do next week:

1. Learn more about it. Chris Brogan wrote a nice post “10 Things CMOs Need To Know About Google+”.  Start by reading it.
2. Set up your profile. Nothing helps you get a better understanding of a new tool than using it. Go to plus.google.com to get started. If you need an invite, let me know and I’ll send you one.
3. Add +1 to you website. It will make it easier for people to share your content and improve your SEO results. Not sure how to do it? Click here for details from Google.

So what is your take on Google+? Will it be the next big thing? Is it just another social network to manage? Did they actually get this one right?

———-

John Ellett is CEO of nFusion Group, LLC, a digitally-focused marketing agency based in Austin, TX. He has a passion for encouraging and supporting marketing leaders who have the courage to be change agents in their organizations.