How Could Your Customer Transform Your Business Through Word of Mouth?

Digital word of mouth creates real-time feedback

Can I have a word?


You are possibly missing out on a golden opportunity.


With the later stages of the Internet turning us all into digital journalists a business no longer gets away with being good it has to be MARVELLOUS!


Anything less than blowing your customer away with superb service does not cut the mustard.
Some business owners have got into flap about dodgy reviews online and at one point it was true as read and many believed every comment. In 2010 a bad review will not be detrimental just so long as it is a one off, we have all read the one review on Tripadvisor from the grumpy holidaymaker who hates the queue at breakfast, moaning about the fruit juice, we all know they have deeper issues or the other 30 reviews are all wrong and it might true about the unfriendly staff with no orange juice!


Holiday time for me is right (I actually wrote this last week and am now back in England with the heating on as it is chilly) now as I sit in my study at home in Sri Lanka, we planned a weekend down south, we fancied the best beaches, our closest beaches are nice, not as nice as beaches a couple of hours south of Colombo, towards Galle, we fancied a change and wanted a great beach hotel and sure enough reading other peoples reviews was the final job before booking.


My first stop was Googling the area, see the villages and then reading the reviews. You will no doubt have done the same and we might be the last generation to have stopped in a hotel without knowing how to get feedback from twenty of the very last guests.


Feedback can be great for business or it could spell disaster and Nestle will be feeling this on the bottom-line after the Kit Kat fiasco.


After calls that asked Nestle why they used Palm Oil that endangered the life of the Orangutan they tried a unique approach as food giant Nestle, already under pressure from environmentalists, became the subject of a Facebook- and Twitter-based "twitstorm" when the operators of the corporation's Facebook page took a hostile approach to critics.


In protest against Nestle’susageof palm oil from companies that kill Indonesian rainforests, Facebookusers put up anti-Nestle logos as their profile pictures.
Nestle asked them to remove these images, triggering even more discontent from the “fans.” These conversations snowballed into a PR fiasco for the company.


Every action gets a reaction, Greenpeace has long been putting the pressure on Nestle to stop using palm oil, the production of which has been documented as a source of deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and endangered species loss. With huge help from Facebook users Greenpeace made friends with many people and became more mainstream. I in the past thought Greenpeace was a little radical, (imaginary) membership comprising of an induction involving eating granola bars for two weeks and walking for 1 hour to work daily with vegetarians driving a Prius complete with a wetsuit in the boot and off to the park saving the Mallard from white bread (wholemeal only). 


Don't get me wrong I am a bit of an Eco Warrior myself, they just seemed a bit over the top, compared to me (goals: Solar panels on the roof/Bentley in garage) the lighter green, with Greenpeace getting 200,000 emails sent and a word of mouth viewing totalling 1.5 million of its viral film they made followers through online PR.


When Greenpeace set sights on banking giant HSBC the reaction was fast and they gave up  shares in Sinar Mas, one of the worst companies responsible for ripping up the Indonesian rainforest for palm oil and pulp plantations.


So in this battle Greenpeace grew its brand and Nestle killed a brand. 


Why is Word of Mouth (WOM) so HOT now?


Frankly WOM has always been hot and personally I've been instrumental in establishing a handful of people (for WOM to work just find a handful better than you are) who built sales of around $200 million WOM for one product and for one company. The amazing thing was that no market was officially identified for that product and sales still increase.


Today people are faster as word spreads (word can be typed or oral) through a plethora of online social networks and we can then take action together. 


The slowness of isolated instances of bad customer experiences are no longer a challenge as we express our concerns and dissatisfaction more loudly than ever before.


Not just chocolate, we can challenge traditional business activities and people in power. 
In the digital world a few inspire and reach many. 


We can use this to our advantage with a flow of information publishing the thoughts of every single customer and that is much stronger/faster reaction than ever seen in our lifetime.


I follow the thoughts of Seth Godin and say build a tribe of employees, partners and customers. This is where customer satisfaction becomes critical.


Do not let this scare you as we tend to gravitate towards the positive.
Having worked in three companies who sold nothing off the shelf of a shop I implore you take this concept seriously and it should motivate you to be a better marketer. 


You can now make more sales off an ideal that if your customers are happy, they will share satisfactory experiences with a broader social network and earn you more followers.


Word of Mouth means something we can remark about and one word describes this remarkable. Both Greenpeace and Nestle did something worth remarking about.


To get the greatest response on Facebook or Twiter it will be no big surprise to know the highest response or re-tweet was found in conjunction when a sexual reference was in the title.
Positivity is more shared than negativity. 


So if you want to make a fortune blogging and get the articles shared on Facebook, try writing (positively) about sex.


The real commercial word is FREE as we seek value for money and look toward the voucher business. I tried to get a decent reseller deal with a voucher company and they are so busy the response was yeah have a few pence in the pound. Without doubt in this financial market 
online vouchers are the business to be in and I will enter the market shortly, buying our own email database, with special offers being flavour of the moment.


As an online marketer you will have realised that if you provide incredible value, consumers will beat a path to your door. 


Of course, you’ll probably run out of pizza (or whatever it is you provide) , which is exactly the result you were hoping for and those who help market this can make a fortune out of a WIN/WIN situation.  


Get yourself known, I laugh at those who still say it is cool to be a secret on the web and one Internet Networker claims I don't do email. I say get known, get a thousand or more Twitter folowers, find 500 Facebook friends and fans.


Post replies all over LinkedIn and set up groups. The key to status is everyone wants to share it.  And the more you have it, the more you’ll do just that. If you make it simple for people to share their connectivity, there won’t be a tight lip in the house.
To make the most of this our team at Netbods (www.netbods.net) are predicting a big upturn in translation with 
English to Chinese translation.

Chinese to English translation. 

English to Japanese translation.

Japanese to English translation.
Also all the Indian languages

This covers 35% of the population and switched on business people will want to capture this market.

I've set up a Netbods team just for translation as we are now a global market.
How we can transform our business comes through making our blog worth a 
read.


There are some insanely popular blogs out there. You probably have heard of the biggies, like: The Huffington Post, Mashable!, TechCrunch and Gizmodo. But today let’s talk about a more achievable idea and how you could make your blog one of those that people read.

The Internet is a level playing field and this means that every single blog has a shot at gaining a big readership. 

I wanted to compile  some ideas to make sure that your blog posts are influential, tweetable and hopefully – even a bit addictive.

Make sure that your blog is…

1. Part of the global blogging fraternity
   Networking online counts and it counts BIG in the Internet world. The first and best way to drive readers to your blog is to be an active participant on theirs. Comment all the time on a blog whose readers you’d like to attract. 
2. Break the normal rules
   Please avoid making-up fake controversy, although I would embrace the real thing, either. Controversial topics and debates will  make your site the go-to place for readers.  We all like a heated debate? It’s human nature to want to ‘see a scrap'
3. Takeaway Heavy
   You must make sure all blog posts jump off the page. They should be alive and you should ensure they should get into a readers brain and traumatise them, long after they have browsed away from your blog they should remember what you wrote. When you create a post, think about it from the readers’ point of view. Are you just talking about stuff or are you giving your readers something they can act upon and change their lives for the better?
4. Facts are the truth when you've done research
   Do your fact finding, back up your point of view with facts. Talking in generalities about your industry will still gain you readers but if you can include references to research and if you go a little deeper, it will up the chances they can return. It will also up the chances that you will be quoted again and again or even linked to, by other bloggers!
5. Personal & Passionate
   “Write about what you know” is not new advice. Your best, most compelling blog posts will happen when you write about topics that are near and dear to your heart. Don’t shy away from writing with passion, either. Seeing you care about a topic will make readers care about your posts!

What blogger has inspired loyalty in you? Who do you follow and recommend your friends to? Why? What specifically made them stand out in your mind?

http://mashable.com/2010/05/17/nestle-social-media-fallout/


http://e-activist.com/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=18&ea.campaign.id=6632

Related articles by Zemanta

• After Greenpeace Action, Burger King Stops Greasing Palms With Sinar Mas (fastcompany.com)
• Unilever Explores Algal Oil As a Green Alternative to Palm Oil (dailyfinance.com)
• Burger King drops controversial palm oil supplier (businessgreen.com)
• Burger King Lets Activists Have It Their Way (environment.change.org)
• Burger King Dumps Palm Oil Supplier over Land-Use Practices (environmentalleader.com)
• Burger King to stop buying palm oil from SMART (reuters.com)
• You: Greenpeace: Indonesian palm oil firm breaks promise, destroys forest (earthtimes.org)
• Palm oil group still destroying Indonesian forest, says Greenpeace (businessgreen.com)
• Burger King to stop buying palm oil from Indonesian company accused of rainforest destruction (foxnews.com)
• Sinar Mas Says Greenpeace Claims 'Largely Unfounded' (businessweek.com)

How to get free images for your blog (and not get sued for copyright)

When I need an image it is so tempting to take a look at Google images and quietly include this in your posting.

  by  Tony Crider 

This is seen by the photographer and agents as simple theft. 


Do you want the huge risk of legal action? (It was rumoured that companies like Getty Images protect themselves by employing students to look for images that break the copyright law and sue you heavily) 


Unless someone specifically grants you rights to use a given image, every picture taken in the United Kingdom (and in most other countries) is considered to be under copyright protection, and the property of the person who took that picture. 
Even if you paid for a photo-studio shoot it probably is not your image and you might have to pay again to use it online.

Let me stress something here – this is serious, you really can get sued, and if the person has taken the right steps in copyrighting their picture, you could have to not only pay them a huge amount for stealing their image, you could also be charged damages, which could be serious amounts of money!

Shall we look at a safe way to avoid this issue? And we can

1. Laboriously negotiate payment for rights with the photographer or broker
2. Go to sites that sell rights for pictures and pay them for the images that you use 
3. Try using creative commons-licensed content and follow the restrictions specifically placed on each particular image.

The most affordable way is  using 'Creative-Commons' licensed images. Creative Commons is a non-profit system that offers an alternative to full copyright. Basically, it’s a special licensing system that allows people to use content without the hassles of negotiation, licensing and fees. It’s worth spending a few minutes studying the different options available through Creative Commons at http://www.creativecommons.org

If you want a simple way to have these imgaes you can always go to:

 Creative Commons 

http://search.creativecommons.org/

 or Flickr 

http://www.flickr.com/groups/creative_commons-_free_pictures/discuss/72157623985875133/

Flickr have over 13,000 images in the pool and it very important that you understand creative commons licenses when using. Just because they are creative commons licenses, doesn't mean they are available to do anything with.

A good easy page to look at is this one that lists all creative commons licenseswww.flickr.com/creativecommons/

All of these are creative commons licenses (you will see the symbols that can be found on every image on Flickr . The symbols can be seen on the right hand side of the image page under the tags). There are 2 licenses you cannot change in any way. These are the ones with the " = " symbol. The others you can use in your artworks.

If you use the Attribution license (the top one) you can set any license you want to your works including copyright.
(**Note this is the easiest & safest one to use**)

If you use non- commercial (this is the "$" sign with a line through it) -you are not allowed to use in commercial works.

If you use the share alike (this is the backward " c" symbol) - you must assign a share alike license to your works.

Even print out the page & keep alongside you when searching for images. Just always remember never use anything with a "=" sign in your works & please let Flickr know if you find any in the pool.

OK so how do we find the right images, FREE and avoid legal action?

1) Go to http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/

2) Enter the object you are are searching for and a selection of available images will appear

3) Do not use any of them as the image merely being on Flickr does not allow you to use it

4) Top right is advanced search, select this and you should click your mouse at the bottom of the advanced page on Creative Commons 

Creative Commons-licensed content for commercial use are the boxes 
you need to check and then hit search

Now you can start to select that favourite picture and you will have to search through to get a great image (cost you nothing)

5) Click on the image you like and have a preview 

6) Bottom right you will most likely see that some right are reserved and now we will check these terms out by clicking on the link 'Some rights reserved' .

You must have some understanding of the licenses or could find yourself getting complaints.

7) You are now off to the Creative Commons (CC) site as a double check that you are allowed to use this image.

8) The CC site will probable call the image a Generic 2.0 image and that is precisley what we wanted.

This should have a web-page heading  'Attribution-Share A like 2.0 Generic' which simply

  is all jargon that means you can share it, remix, alter the image, copy, distribute and transmit the image.

9) Look out for the details that say must be attributed and in particular how it should be attributed.

10) You might see some precise instructions and on others it says attribute and that is all.

If the image is vague then we can utilise this find in different ways as the owner has not been bright enough to leave instructions for an attribution statement (I will do another posting on how you should present your attribution statement)

It is courtesy to include CC for Creative Commons, Flickr, the photographer with links to their personal profile and this can be near the image or at the bottom of the page.

11) My advice is that you:  

• Make sure you understood the license correctly
• Get the correct HTML code for the IMG tag
• Link the image back to the Flickr photo page
• Give the author of the image proper credits (Attribution)
• Link to the Flickr profile of the author
• Link to the license the image is licensed under

The solution http://www.imagecodr.org/get.php (note no e in coder)

With ImageCodr.org, there is no need to do all this manually, you simply enter in the URL of the picture page (as seen in your browser) you are interested in and ImageCodr.org will generate the ready to use HTML code. It will also display a brief and easy license summary, so you don't get in legal trouble because you missed something. Now your whole attribution statement is done with code to put straight into your blog.


Proper attribution is the only price you need pay and the rest is all trust.
Trust is key and you must attribute at every use of a CC image. I would suggest that you tag each CC image, keep an attribution statement and store them in Picasa or Lightroom. picasaweb.google.com I like Picasa for one BIG reason and that is the simple fact it is FREE!


Now tag with great detail and include that all important attribution code for simple later use.
Have a good look as you might go through 10 or 20 pages to get a great image and if this helps you get 90% of your images it will save you a fortune.

How to win Internet friends and make business happen

Why are we busy getting involved in blogging or social networking in general?


At Netbods we think about social media as a strategy to enhance your existing marketing and business goals, not as a solution all on its own.


I expect we might dress it up as branding, relationship building and really we want more business.
Whatever the real reason you are involved in your daily pursuits all I say is if you really want more business stop talking about products and services, people don’t care about them. People only care about themselves and they care deeply about their problems. Talk about solving their problems, instead of talking about (unless you are just having fun) yourself.




FIRST STEPS
You can’t do it all by yourself. Demonstrate mutually beneficial relationships and give first, then evaluate what you get back.


Do not Tweet or post about everything (unless having fun) as just one niche mastered online with a webinar teaching others about that niche works very well as long as the content you promote is good content within your niche and it serves others well.


WRITE A GOOD PROFILE/BIO
 Being clear on your online persona is key so invest and get yourself properly interviewed either by a professional interviewer or writer, or if you don’t have the budget for that, by a friend a coffee (or something stronger) and ask them to interview you. If you have a bottle of wind please ensure they ask you questions that relate to your personality and expertise (easy to lose the plot).


In creating your persona for the Internet the questions are simply looking at your unique and existing benefits. 
What do you already have that others don’t?
What you have that you may take for granted?
What gives you an advantage over others?


DO NOT RUSH
We are looking for different things online, the starting point for all is the same as we must establish trust and make friends.


 Online trust is a slow burn, it grows organically by having quality 1 on 1 conversations with people over time. Consistent, steady and takes time to get right. Find and identify gifted up and comers, help them launch and you gain a lifelong advocate. It’s not about who has the most connections, it’s about who has the most rabid advocates.


BE A TRUSTED RESOURCE
Create a blog, make an Internet TV show, an online magazine, etc… that entertains people. Become a regular trusted resource. When getting material seek out those with an existing profile Become a systematic person in your online approach in getting to know the individuals that are already on the path you are about to take. Focus on those that are already successful  and get to know them, ask for an interview and include this as we all like to find out how they did it.


By remarking and making comment on other peoples postings you will soon build a community of readers. Find new topics that are thought provoking and conversational. Self expression is the new form of entertainment. Use conversational topics.


MONITOR WHAT THE PEOPLE SAY
The best use of your time is to connect with your customers first. Be there for them the moment they need you. Set up an alerts system to monitor what people are saying about your company.
Share ideas liberally and respond to all feedback as accountability gets you to complete and improve your ideas. Let everyone know what you are up to.


UNDERSTAND THE READER
 We are all media producers, learn mass media styles and apply it in the context of social media. Learn to be a story teller and imagine you are writing a personal letter to a friend. Understand the psychology of the people you are talking to. Use it to create quality content. Step out of hum-drum as you need to shake things up, change the world, at least your world. The rest will wake up and pay attention. At Netbods we like to get people out of ritual and routine by waking the reader up with a spot of trauma


BECOME A STORY TELLER
Its all about your passion, who you are and what you bring to the table. Think about the authenticity and consistency of your voice off and online. The story you tell should have a deep connection. This will make people listen to what you post and create conversations around you and build you on other networks. Engage with new networks, build trust, make friends and create an online community.


WHO DO YOU HANG OUT WITH
Network to other influencers. Make sure everyone is aware of the value you provide. Also help others overcome their challenges. Get active on other peoples communities. Get off of your space and get on their space, spread your influence by being where your voice can be heard and is relevant.


CONVENTIONAL THINKING IS A THING OF THE PAST
 Get rid of conventional views of influence. Influence by dialog, don’t try and compete, admire. Change your mind instead of trying to change the minds of others. Engage people instead of trying to win the debate. Don’t think about your influence, think about their influence. Talk about the things you are knowledgeable about as content is king, influence will come when you provide content in which you know what you are talking about.




START WITH THE END IN MIND
Think about your gifts, your passions, and your expertise in your field that you can share to help others. By understanding what your audience needs you can build things that will help them.


MOVE OFFLINE
At a later stage seek a market is not offline and surround your online marketing with speaking events or if the budget allows you to venture into local radio talks, advertising and even TV news will tackle your audience offline.


SPACED REPARTITION 
We broadcast to time poor people with a mass of knowledge to absorb so never be afraid to swap you postings from one blog that you run to another and repeat your tweets. I repeat mine 5 times every 10 hours, and still get the same amount of click throughs on all of them.
Rather than churning out garbage you would be best to repeat pearls of wisdom and build influence by building something worth talking about. Unique, and awe inspiring. Be on track with what others might envy.


HAVE FUN
Make people around you more successful than you. Be able to laugh at yourself, do not be afraid to be vulnerable.


SET UP A FAN PAGE ON FACEBOOK
Facebook is great for business, not just for personal use and please set up a fan page.


As Yaro Starak – Blogger, Entrepreneurs Journey says
"Increase your digital influence by talking about other people. Them most important person to someone is themselves. So talk about those who you want to influence and build a relationships with, get their attention. People love hearing about themselves."


Also Robbin Phillips - Brand on Fire says
" It is not about digital, it is about people. Use passion conversation instead of product conversation. Talk about the stuff you are passionate about, not the products. Let your passions shine, who you are and what you stand for online. This enables you to create meaningful relationships"


Jason Falls – Social Media Explorer says
" Simple strategy using Twitter and Facebook: Share good content consistently from all over the web. People are interested in good content, so share good stuff, whether it’s yours or not"


Read the online versions of Reuters, Daily Telegraph, The Times, WSJ and look for breaking news in your sector and be the very first to report a unique version to your followers

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• 60 Proven Ways to Increase Your Online Marketing Influence (hubspot.com)
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• www.netbods.net