As I was sitting in the locker room last week getting ready for my daily swim, the conversation turned to the inevitable at this time of year – the best and most conversation-worthy holiday gifts that my swimming mates and I received. There was talk about the new Galaxy Note, a PS3 video game, a multi-functional kitchen range from GE, and even a hot-off-the-line electric lawnmower. This same conversation was, and is, occurring between friends and acquaintances in every living room, every restaurant and on every social network at this time of year. Although social volume peaks during the holiday, it happens all year long; smart brands know it and are building strategic plans to harness it. They know they can’t leave it to chance anymore.
What strikes me most, though, is the palpability of these conversations and endorsements. My friends seemed to love the gifts they received – and they instinctively wanted to talk about them -- a lot. I became so intrigued by their endorsements of the Galaxy Note, that I had to go check it out (incidentally, The Note was very cool and it made me question the new Galaxy 3 my wife just bought me – but I didn’t tell her). These kinds of conversations – online and offline - are marketing gold.
We give this kind of marketing many names: brand advocacy, word-of-mouth, social advocacy, earned media, etc. Whatever we choose to call it, it is undeniable that the consumer decision-making process has changed and consumers, more often than not, are basing their purchases on what other consumers say. In a recent study almost 80% of potential buyers said that user 
generated content from existing customers had some influence on their decision to buy a specific product. Another cites that 41% of US adults consult online reviews as their source of ideas for holiday gifts*. Brands are coming to realize that they need to harness the power of their happy customers and proactively drive social advocacy – it is becoming critical to their success or failure as a company. Social marketing platforms that make it simple to generate, track and manage social behaviors are absolutely critical to a business - so conversations like the one I had in the locker room don’t become missed opportunities to build their brand, drive revenue, and create lasting customer relationships.
And they need to do it throughout the year - not just during the holiday season.
Richard Beedon is the Founder and CEO of Amplifinity
Amplifinity is helping one of our clients, a major telecom provider, drive revenue, acquire new customers and build a large database of brand advocates - all using the AMP platform. Request our case study today, and learn how we can help your enterprise-level company do the same.
Amplifinity seeks energetic, resourceful and driven Sales Account Managers. We are a creative, fun, but hardworking team, and our recent growth has created the need for more sales talent!
Read more about this position, and other openings: click here.
Join Amplifinity and WOMMA on Wednesday, October 10, 2012, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM (CDT), for our Webinar: B2Bs in a Social World: Why Brand Advocacy Works
This is a free event, but space is limited, so please sign up today:
Register at: http://amplifinity.eventbrite.com/
What to Expect:
Speaker: Richard Beedon
There are 3 truths in B2B marketing today: 1) It’s increasingly harder to generate high quality leads and acquire customers; 2) It’s a social world and what people say about your brand is very important, and 3) Every brand has a generally untapped marketing channel consisting of their customers, employees and partners – these are a B2B’s brand advocates and they can reach out easily and often. This webinar will explain how.
Takeaways:
1. How to engage your salesforce to make referrals on your behalf.
2. How to engage your partners to make referrals on your behalf.
3. How the social world has changed B2B marketing.
4. The changing consumer climate - how B2Bs fit in.
5. The technologies available that can streamline and integrate with B2Bs’ systems to make brand advocacy simple
6. The advantages B2Bs have when it comes to brand advocacy and referral management.
Join Amplifinity and WOMMA on Wednesday, October 10, 2012, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM (CDT), for our Webinar: B2Bs in a Social World: Why Brand Advocacy Works
This is a free event, but space is limited, so please sign up today:
Register at: http://amplifinity.eventbrite.com/
What to Expect:
Speaker: Richard Beedon
There are 3 truths in B2B marketing today: 1) It’s increasingly harder to generate high quality leads and acquire customers; 2) It’s a social world and what people say about your brand is very important, and 3) Every brand has a generally untapped marketing channel consisting of their customers, employees and partners – these are a B2B’s brand advocates and they can reach out easily and often. This webinar will explain how.
Takeaways:
1. How to engage your salesforce to make referrals on your behalf.
2. How to engage your partners to make referrals on your behalf.
3. How the social world has changed B2B marketing.
4. The changing consumer climate - how B2Bs fit in.
5. The technologies available that can streamline and integrate with B2Bs’ systems to make brand advocacy simple
6. The advantages B2Bs have when it comes to brand advocacy and referral management.
Brad Allen; Sales Associate at Amplifinity
Most have what I refer to as a favorite "toy" (cars, boats, power tools, those lucky few with airplanes, motorcycles, etc.). This toy is the one thing you had to have, love to show off, and must talk about. For me, I love my lawn mower. This is a man/machine love all the way. Many of you get what I’m saying without explanation (all you John Deere fans), but for those that don’t, I’ll provide a little more detail.
My mower came to me from a friend, who I would describe as a car guy, who replaced the
mower with a newer model. I referred to my old mower as the “Ferrari of Lawn Mowers,” although my sons did not agree. After consistent, tender loving care it would soldier on for 23 years. I witnessed its demise, and since there was no hope in repairing it due to the age and hours on the motor, it was time to go shopping.
I consulted many trusted sources like Consumer Reports, read online reviews, and talked to friends and family. After weeding through all my options, I finally found want I wanted! Less than $200 later, I was the proud owner of my new mower.
Of course, I had to try it out immediately. It started on the first pull. It weighed seemingly half of my old mower. The wheels easily adjusted. It was everything the brand promised and more. I was totally happy with my new “Ferrari.”
As a new brand advocate, I wanted to let all those out there know about this amazing lawnmower. Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not have any way for a customer to provide a customer review on their web site. Companies, just like this one, can create greater brand awareness by simply asking customers to write reviews and testimonials, and refer friends (who knows once someone sees your new toy they may want one of their own). A recent study from Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy, found that online consumer reviews are the second most trusted form of advertising.
Why wouldn't every company ask their customers to write reviews? It just makes sense. It's also free marketing and advertising of the most trusted kind.
Did I get your attention? I hope so, because I loved this article in The Atlantic this month! Short and to the point, Frank Rose reports on a recent Harvard study that explores why people like to talk about themselves so damn much these days. Turns out, our brains really dig disclosing personal thoughts and opinions about, well, pretty much anything. We like it so much, in fact, that the act of sharing activates and engages our "mesolimbic dopamine system." Who knew?
Why does this matter to what we do at Amplifinity? Well, if people like to talk and share as much as this study suggests, (and as long as humans still get happy from eating and having sex), they're still going to be sharing thoughts about your brand and referring you business. And that means I have more job security than I thought.
Join Amplifinity and WOMMA on Wednesday, October 10, 2012, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM (CDT), for our Webinar: B2Bs in a Social World: Why Brand Advocacy Works
This event is free to WOMMA members, but space is limited, so please sign up today:
Register at: http://amplifinity.eventbrite.com/
What to Expect:
Speaker: Richard Beedon
There are 3 truths in B2B marketing today: 1) It’s increasingly harder to generate high quality leads and acquire customers; 2) It’s a social world and what people say about your brand is very important, and 3) Every brand has a generally untapped marketing channel consisting of their customers, employees and partners – these are a B2B’s brand advocates and they can reach out easily and often. This webinar will explain how.
Takeaways:
1. How to engage your salesforce to make referrals on your behalf.
2. How to engage your partners to make referrals on your behalf.
3. How the social world has changed B2B marketing.
4. The changing consumer climate - how B2Bs fit in.
5. The technologies available that can streamline and integrate with B2Bs’ systems to make brand advocacy simple
6. The advantages B2Bs have when it comes to brand advocacy and referral management.
Eric Jacobson; President and CFO at Amplifinity
There is a scene in Woody Allen’s classic film “Take The Money and Run” that always cracks me up. A prisoner working on a chain gang complains to the guards, and as punishment, he is locked up in the hole with an insurance salesman. The scene is funny because there was a time when the public perception of insurance agents was something painful -- that they maximize their revenue by telling clients all the awful things that might happen to them. Times have changed. I have referred a number of friends to my insurance agent, Matt, not because he feeds my paranoia, but because he offers excellent service and doesn’t sell me policies I don’t need. It’s all about trust.
Lately, we have been having more and more conversations here at Amplifinity with folks in the insurance industry. This is an exciting development for an industry that has been helping people to protect their assets and families for a long time. However, if you’ve seen any ads
by insurance companies in the last decade, they seem to have a new problem on their hands. Ads are almost always about having the cheapest rates. This kind of price war erodes margins. And aggressive insurance agents, like Woody Allen’s cell mate, aren’t a good solution either.
But this is where word-of-mouth software can save the day. Software like the kind we sell here at Amplifinity lets happy customers at good companies create testimonials and referrals online. These good companies can now differentiate themselves by their service, not just their prices. Customer referral programs and testimonials, where customers share stories about agents who gave trustworthy service, or helped them with a claim amidst tragedy, aren’t just avoiding the industry’s price war… they are priceless.
Dan Pasick; Director of Corporate Sales at Amplifinity
If most companies today took a sample of 200 of their customers, it's probable that at least 10-20% percent of those customers would already be considered brand advocates. BUT, this pool of people has a lot of different swimmers in it, and it's important that companies know who they are.
Let me give you an overview. These people probably sound pretty familiar to you already...
Advocate Type #1 : Jack Spendal.
Jack is what we would call an uber-connecter. As a child, Jack was one of those kids who you really wanted to be friends with regardless of your gender, race, ethnicity or personality. Everyone knows a "Jack" (and probably knows him through some sort of '6 degrees of Jack Spendal separation’). It takes twice as long to get to your destination when accompanied by Jack because he is constantly running into people he knows, and he loves to talk about anything with them (work, clothes, sports etc). One of Jack's favorite topics is great deals...especially when there are incentives involved for both him and his friends. Jack doesn’t just limit his interactions to run-ins on the street; he likes to connect with friends via social media, text, email and any other form of communication. Even though Jack might be annoying to some, but he makes a pretty awesome brand advocate.
Advocate #2 : Kara Kowalski
Now, Kara is what we call a rave reviewer. As a child, Kara was that classmate who took 2 hours to fill out the teacher evaluation at the end of the year. Unlike Jack, Kara doesn’t like to refer deals to her friends, especially if she happens to be getting something out of it. Kara is the first person to write a thorough review about all the good and bad experiences she has had on sites such as Yelp, Consumer Reports, Twitter, and even a company’s Facebook fan page. For example, Kara recently went to a new restaurant that opened up in her home town. She had heard positive and negative things about this place but wanted to check it out on her own; she even brought her iPad along to take some notes. At first, the menu seemed a lot different than what she was used to, but she tried to keep an open mind. By the end of the meal Kara was raving about this restaurant. The food was unique but tasty, and the service was impeccable. As soon as she got home, she started writing reviews on her favorite social media sites. Since a lot of people were used to seeing and following Kara’s reviews, which were often more negative than positive, they were very interested in checking out the new restaurant that Kara actually
liked!
Advocate #3: James Jandeliker
James, on the other hand, is what we call a rapid re-poster. As a child, James was that kid who would let you play with his new toy before he'd even had a turn. As James grew older and technology was advancing, he began to realize all the different ways he could share cool things with his network. As an intern for GQ Magazine, James came across a lot of new styles of clothing and technology. His 2,000 Facebook friends and 10,000 Twitter followers were the (sometimes unwilling) recipients of every worthy re-post of an article, video, song or link James found interesting.
While every one of these types can give your brand a brand advocacy boost, the point is that you need to know them. You need to integrate a technology that makes it possible for you to know who your brand advocates are, where they talk about you, and what will make them talk even more. And then you need to nurture your relationship with them by thanking them for what they do and providing motivation for them to do more. They're as unique as your products, and they can make or break your brand, so take the time to get to know all your Jacks, Karas and James'.