Posted by Christopher Stevenson
Here's a quick confessional story and a lesson I learned about effective use of word-of-mouth marketing.
A few weeks back, Ron Shevlin left a comment on my summer reading post encouraging me to check out Expert's Choice, which lists book recommendations of influential bloggers. (All proceeds from sales of books are donated to Kiva.org.) When I read through Andy Sernovitz's list I noticed that he recommended his own book. At first blush, it seemed a bit self-serving to me, so I sent Ron a tweet that said something along the lines of "Did you notice that A. Sernovitz recommended his own book on Expert's Choice?" I didn't intend for my comment to sound snippy, but it may have been perceived that way.
Andy Sernovitz apparently saw my comment and tweeted "before you judge: some students ask me what books I assign to my class, then it shows up on that site. not self-promo." Embarrassed, I tweeted back something weak like, "That makes sense," and swore to myself that I'd be more careful with Twitter in the future. (In real life, my wife lovingly helps me avoid such social indiscretions. Unfortunately, she doesn't use Twitter.)
The story doesn't end there. This week, Andy Sernovitz sent me his book, Word of Mouth Marketing.
The thing is, when I opened the envelope and saw the book the first thing I wanted to do is write up a quick blog post to thank Andy (Thanks, Andy!) and share his book with readers--not because he mailed me the book, but because he included a brief, handwritten note that says "I hope you enjoy this. Cheers, Andy."
The note made a difference in how I received the book. Andy's not soliciting business from me, trying to get on the speaker schedule for conferences, or selling books. Andy followed his own advice and 1.) did something unexpected, and 2.) was nice (items 15 and 16 on Andy's "Sixteen Sure-Thing, Must-Do, Awfully Easy Word of Mouth Marketing Techniques"). It worked; I'm talking.
I'll be reading Word of Mouth Marketing over the next week or so and will be writing a follow-up post when I'm done. If you're looking for some beach reading, pick up WOMM, read it, and watch for my post. I'd love to have you contribute to the conversation.
