Social Media | Power to the Small Business

Tapping Brand Advocates for Word of Mouth Marketing

You may be surprised at how many of your customers are really your brand advocates, ready and willing to spread the word about your business. You just need to give them a nudge in the right direction. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Rob Fugetta, Founder and CEO of Zuberance, and author of Brand Advocates, joins host Jay Ehret to discuss how to turn your brand advocates into brand promoters.

Guest: Rob Fugetta – Zuberance.
Host: Jay Ehret – The Marketing Spot
Length: 24 minutes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Rob Fugetta on Brand Advocates:

Definition of Brand Advocates – Highly satisfied customers, or others, who are willing to recommend your brand or product without pay or incentives.

Start by asking the ultimate question for customer loyalty:
“On a scale from 1-10, how likely are you to recommend us to your friends or colleagues?”

Steps to Tapping Brand Advocates for Word of Mouth

1. Identify - Ask the ultimate question across a variety of customer touch points and communications channels.

2. Energize – Making it easy for your advocates to recommend them.

Create ratings and reviews for your products.
Collect advocate stories and testimonials.
Get advocates to share content and offers with their social network.

3. Track your results.

Selected Quotes from Rob Fugetta:

“True advocacy cannot be paid for or manufactured, it can only be earned.”

“It’s really not about marketing to your advocates; it’s marketing through your advocates, and with your advocates.”

“Marketing is about more than clicks and impressions; it’s about building a movement around your brand.”

SHOW LINKS:

Buy the book: Brand Advocates: Turning Enthusiastic Customers Into a Powerful Marketing Force
Rob Fugetta at Zuberance
Rob Fugetta on Twitter

Hybrid Vigor and The Corridor of Opportunity

Topic: What I learned at the 140 Characters Conference NYC.

Podcast Episode #79 of the internet show about small business marketing

Last week I presented at the 140 Characters Conference, New York. My presentation was titled: Now is Your Brand? But this conference was more than just a speaking engagement, it was an incredible networking opportunity and a chance to learn about marketing. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, I share some interesting conversations I had, and my big take-aways.

Host: Jay Ehret – Chief Officer of Awesomeness at TheMarketingSpot.com
Length: 21 minutes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

– SHOW NOTES AND LINKS –

Honking Just to be Honking:

The now tools of the internet convince us that we always have to be saying something…now! It’s like the guy laying on his horn in stop and go traffic. It has no effect other than “honking just to be honking.” When our Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook status updates are simply a bunch of links and unimportant events, we are honking just to be honking. Instead spend more time on the future of your brand.

“Now is not your brand, now is the future of your brand.”

Let Texas be Texas:

Allowing for differentiation – In the podcast I share a story about a conversation I had at the 140 Characters Conference networking event, where a conference goer suggested I tweet our Texas Governor to change the school paddling laws. My response shocked her, and I think it was a lesson in branding. Copying makes you homogenous and undifferentiated.

“Let New York be New York and let Texas be Texas.”

Hybrid Vigor:

Hybrid Vigor – Exchanging ideas with people not like you o create something totally new.

The 140 Characters Conference was an incredible networking opportunity to meet people from all walks of life from all the corners of the world. Different lifestyles, different value systems, new opportunities. Meeting new people and trying new things creates hybrid vigor and opens up a corridor of opportunity that did not previously exist.

Networking Instead of Marketing:

At the conference I met people from Luxembourg, Israel, Australia, Holland, Canada, and several states in the U.S. It was incredible networking. I think that’s also the real opportunity of social media; networking. Too many marketing experts present social media as a marketing tool, when it’s really more of a networking tool. Cody Heitschmidt called Twitter “The world’s coffee shop.” Try using social media to network with your customers rather than just market to them.

SHOW LINKS

Premium Webinar: How to Create, Write and Leverage a Blog
Registration Information: Jay Ehret’s Blogging Webinar
Webinar Discount Promotion Code: Power25

- 140 Characters Conference NYC
- Small Biz Survival blog by Becky McCray
- Becky McCray on Twitter
- Cody Heitschmidt on Twitter
- Annie Tran on Twitter

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