When Word of Mouth Goes in the Wrong Direction

The goal of every viral campaign is to reach the largest amount of people and spread a message, feeling or awareness. So the more the merrier, right?

Well not always... Sure if you're a rockstar who can't make it in the US, it's a nice consolation to be "big in Japan". But there's really no use of your viral campaign going out of your target region (unless it can somehow make it back in).

So if you're advertising a US-only product and that makes it big overseas, what does that mean? Likely, that you're going to be wasting a lot of bandwidth!

Are there precautions that can be taken to make sure that this doesn't happen? First, you should make sure that you know where the traffic is coming from on sites which you plan to transmit your messages on. Anyone with access to Google Analytics can give you these numbers.

It also can be possible to block traffic from overseas to your servers. But be careful, it is possible that things can go awry and block those that should be viewing and passing on your messages!

Word of Mouth Advertising: What About the Middle Guys?

CNET recently put out a study that may put to question the traditional notion "that there's a small group of hyper-connected, influential individuals marketers should go after to strike word-of-mouth gold." The findings argue that actually "85% or 90% of the population has significant potential to influence."

The study found that these super-influential individuals had just as many interests as the average user. Unfortunately, the entire study was not available for evaluation, but it seems that this is what that conclusion was based upon.

If there is no further analysis to prove this point, then CNET may not be fully familiar with the diffusion process. These hyper-connected, super-influential individuals are not important because their number of interests. Instead, they're often more valuable for having a less than average amount of interests. Why could this be? Because they are often opinion leaders and information brokers on those topics, and disseminate it with a passion. Because of that, they are simply more influential, and a touch from one of them may be more valuable. They also tend to have a further reach, as users will seek these experts to answer questions or to point them in the right direction. Seeking out information is (at least in part) what the Internet is all about.

So it is a bit naive to say that the middle guys are just as important as the key change agents in the diffusion process. However, the advice to have as far of a reach as possible is not bad advice, but let's not downplay the importance of these key player in word of mouth campaigns.

Naming Your Blog for Effective Viral Marketing

Chris Garrett over at chrisg.com has made some great points about the importance of naming your blog.

In naming your blog or viral medium, you are creating a brand. Sure, you probably already have a brand, and it even is likely in the URL. However, the unique characteristics of URLs mean that the small differences between the it and the original brand can mean that it will have characteristics of its own, sometimes with only a partial relation to the original brand.

There are certain jobs that the name of the site fill in the diffusion process - as it is passed from one user to another - and all of them need to be fulfilled within the selection process - with as little as one word.

To start with, it needs to be unique. It needs to be able to catch the attention of the person who is expected to pass it on - it needs to be memorable. If a user can remember the content, but cannot remember the name, how can they be expected to pass it on? An unoriginal or unmemorable name can potentially kill a viral effect in its tracks.

It also needs to describe the content of the site. The sender may give little or no description along with the transmitted URL, or the receiver may not care to read it. If the URL can communicate what should be expected, the receiver may be more likely to visit the site.

Additionally, it needs to portray the correct image. Misspelling words or certain connotations may not portray the brand in the correct light (as ChrisG pointed out, a site for grammarians would not be well received if it used a creative misspelling), or carry other consequences.

The URL also needs to be able to be spelled easily. If one cannot simply rattle off the name, and instead needs to spend a moment explaining the spelling, or take the time to find a pencil to write it down, the extra effort may be enough to stop the potential transmitter from sending the message on. Viral messages are still often communicated by word-of-mouth the old fashioned way... which actually involves using the mouth!

These considerations are just a start of the what must be taken into account when naming a blog or viral campaign. Let it be known that the name is a very important part in lifting a campaign off of the ground and supplying the wind to keep it flying.

OK to play with the brand name to induce word of mouth transmission?

Google is known to represent its brand name in a unique way each day. For Valentine's day, they decided to do something a little different.

Google dropped the L from its name in its daily doodle in homage to an obscure poet who is famous for one romantic line of poetry.

This created an uproar, as the relationship was not immediately made apparent. Bloggers did their thing - writing about their hypotheses to the mystery. It made its way across the internet, being brought to the forefront of many sites such as digg.

Google later explained their intentions in their blog, putting an end to the foray. The final result was not only a general heigtened awareness and exposure for the brand, but also their blog being placed in the spotlight. How many readers who found out about this by word of mouth, or by finding it on digg, knew that Google had a blog? Or how many gave a second thought to giving it a read?

As MediaPost points out, Google has the market share to gamble with its universally recognized brand. This risk paid off for them, but it must be remembered that it is a risk taken with one of a group's most valuable assets: its brand name! Therefore, it must be done with utmost care, and only when the benefits outweigh the risks.

Viral Marketing in Hot Deals Forums - Leveraging Word of Mouth Advertising

Everyone is out to find the lowest price, but it is becoming less common for buyers to drive from store to store to find the hottest deals. Instead, many are searching the Web to find the hottest deals.

In the realm of Consumer Electronics devices, a study has found that 73 percent of consumers found it easy to compare prices online. Other studies have found similar results on a range of products. Price search engines such as Froogle have become popular, but consumers often want to find out more about a product than the canned information that these Websites can provide - or they want coupons or other incentives to sweeten the deal.

And this is where the Hot Deals Forums step in. This is not a new concept, as they have been going strong since the turn of the century (you know, for the last seven or eight years). These forums are a place where users post the best deals that they have found. Others reply and comment, often finding ways to enhance the savings. Successful deals are, as a rule, beyond the lowest search engine price and often involve other work besides following a link to buy. Coupons are often involved, frequently with special tactics. Two of the largest players in the US arena are Fatwallet and SlickDeals.

The visitors of these sites are generally willing to work a little bit to save a buck. They will do more than the average consumer - some will even take risks just to say that they purchased something below the normal price. You won't need to make them take any risks, but making them do a little work for a deal just might be a good idea. If it appears too easy, it might not appear as worthwhile.

Too often are coupon codes generic, allowing them to be stripped from promotions and given to others who would have paid full price, but just happened to find the coupon and get the benefit without seeing the promotional materials from which they came. For this reason, code generators are usually a better idea.

Now let's speak about how they are going to get the code. Why not tie it into a flash game or other viral interactive material that would require them to be entertained. At first, they might wish that they didn't have to take the extra step, but with engaging content, and a meaningful reward, they will be glad that they did. These cost-conscious individuals are also very likely to pass the content on, as they tend to be important players in the diffusion process. They are often what Malcom Gladwell, in his book The Tipping Point, refers to as market mavens. Mavens are the type of people who gather information intently and go out of their way to ensure that this information is put to use. In this domain, a market maven may go as far as to guide the other party through the process, or in some cases even sign them up or do the shopping for them.

Another consideration that must be made is how this coupon (assuming a coupon is to be used) going to be paid for? Will money be lost in the search of new revenue? Maybe it doesn't have to happen. If the product is sold at retailers, and direct sale is available, why not promote the direct purchase? Money saved by eliminating the middle man may more than make up for the coupon discount. Also, if making a coupon with a value that may drop it low enough to be successful isn't plausible, why not highlight other cost savings methods? For instance, Fatwallet provides a percent of cashback on each purchase (FatCash), as does the Discover Card and many other Websites and credit cards. A cross promotion may even be appropriate.

A hot enough deal with an appropriate process will allow your content to go viral in no time. Sites like Fatwallet are known to bring servers to a crawl with traffic - this is affectionately (or to some, frustratingly) known as the Fatwallet Effect. So another consideration would be to make sure that your servers can handle the traffic that this type of delivery can create. Companies offer extra coverage for this type of event, supplying mirrors of your site to handle the demand. You might want the site to slow a little - so they can see how popular the deal is, ie how good of a deal it really is. However, it could be disastrous if it were rendered inaccessible.

Now, how will it get posted to the site in the first place? Posting it directly is often a big no-no, as is outlined in most forums' rules. There are options to pay the sites to run the post as an AD, but these tend not to be hot deals at all and are usually ignored, sometimes even heckled. Rather, it needs to be contributed by a deal-hunting member, as user-generated content is the heart of the site (most real deal-hunters consider the rest of the sites as fluff and rarely view it, if at all) and it will be taken more seriously that way.

So how does it get to that member? That really is a discussion for another day, but let's discuss a few relevant tips. First, it cannot be too easy to be found, because if it is, then you're probably spending too much time promoting it in that way. The deal will not be percieved of as special or worthy of a hot deals forum post. And obviously, it cannot be too hard to find either, because it MUST be found and posted in a timely manner. Browse the site(s) that you want to see it posted at. Use the search function and find highly rated posts or posts about related products and see how they were found. This will give insight on good options. Or maybe even consider contacting top member(s) directly? Be mindful of possible consequences though - maybe even read up on their post history.

These posts are especially effective for multiple reasons. One is the offline aspect. In many offices and between many groups of friends, there is a ritualistic discussion of these types of deals, allowing them to transcend the Web. For instance, those in IT departments are known to start off the day by discussing the deal of the day on woot or late evening, early morning and overnight posts on Fatwallet. Speaking about products and deals were already a staple of conversation, in the same way as the prior evening's TV shows are. Other media that saw birth on the web are still catching up in the word of mouth domain. If done effectively, Hot Deals Forums posts can effectively drive diffusion of a campaign on multiple fronts.