Are people talking behind your back? If not, they should be! Kylie Warne, Managing Director of Brand Bureau, works with clients to integrate word-of-mouth marketing into their marketing activities. In this thought-provoking and interactive keynote presentation and workshop, Kylie will discuss the science and art of generating word of mouth, along with some case study examples and handy hints and tips for library marketing. Presented at LibMark's Word of Mouth Marketing Seminar in June 2014

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Everyone’s a Marketer:
The Power of Word-of-Mouth
Marketing
Kylie Warne
Brand Bureau

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Setting the scene

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Traditional vs omnichannel
Source: Catallyse
From consumers to prosumers

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Behavioural trends for 2014
1. Multiplicity
2. Hyper efficiency
3. New industrial revolution
4. Escape
5. Mindfulness
6. Super-personalised
Source: Forbes

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All about WOM and WOMM

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Word of mouth marketing (WOMM)
Any action by the library that earns a customer
recommendation
Word of mouth (WOM)
Word of mouth, or viva voce, is the passing of information
from person to person.
Definitions
Source: WOMMA

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• Most powerful form of marketing – but should be part of an
integrated marketing approach
• Online and offline
• Builds brands
• Drives engagement
– Membership
– Usage
– Participation
– Collection development
• Sparks conversations
– Between customers
– Between customers and the library
– Between customers and other influencers
• WOMM is increasing due to connectivity through social media
Importance of WOMM

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• Credible
– Honest and authentic marketing messages – from your library to
customers, and from customers to customers
• Respectful
– Transparent and trustworthy behaviour – this relates to privacy
matters between libraries and consumers
• Social
– Listening, participating, responding and encouraging in
conversations both online and offline
• Measureable
– Define, monitor and evaluate your program’s success
• Repeatable
– The ability to do it over and over again to enable your library to
become a truly talkable brand
Attributes of effective WOMM

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• Social currency: People care about how they look to others. Find
the inner remarkability and make people feel like insiders.
• Triggers: Top-of-mind means tip-of-tongue. Trigger people to think
about your idea frequently.
• Emotion: When we care, we share. Focus on feelings rather than
function.
• Public: Built to show, built to grow. Design initiatives that advertise
themselves.
• Practical value: News you can use. Package knowledge so that
others can easily pass it on.
• Stories: Information travels under what seems like idle chatter. Find
a story that people want to tell that carries your idea along for the
ride.
The Principals Behind WOM...
Source: Jonah Berger, Contagious: Why Things Catch On

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• Social currency: How can libraries make people feel they have
access to cool things before others do?
• Triggers: What will prompt people to think of libraries?
• Emotion: How can you deepen people’s emotional connection to
library services?
• Public visibility: How can people recognise that others are library
users or supporters?
• Practical value: What useful information do libraries provide? How
can that be packaged so that people absolutely must tell their
friends?
• Stories: How can you inspire people to share their library stories?
...and the Relevance to Libraries
Source: http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/article/contagious-marketing

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• Why are recommendations important for marketing?
Because recommendations indicate:
– Preference from a customer
– Leads to transaction by a customer (join, borrow, attend)
– Leads to a strong possibility that the customer will tell
others through WOM
• How can we drive recommendations? Some examples:
– Delivering the best products or services in a particular
category
– Providing a great customer experience
– Rewarding customer loyalty
Earning customer recommendations

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1. Give your customers a reason to review you/talk about you (start by providing an
outstanding experience)
2. Make customers “library insiders” – ask their opinion then listen
3. Join the conversation and engage people
4. Monitor your library’s reputation – satisfaction surveys, Google Alerts
5. Contact those who leave a negative review
6. Choose the right tools – online and offline
7. Make your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts easily accessible from
your library so customers can reach out with comments and questions.
8. Place customer reviews on your homepage
9. Ask! Follow up after engagement – encourage customer to review and
recommend to their networks
10. Ask the right questions to receive a fit-for-purpose review – understand their
interests, biggest concerns when dealing with your library
11. Contact those who leave you glowing reviews and ask permission to share their
shoutout on your site and social media networks
12. Run a contest, ask customers to add a hashtag on Instagram or post a quick
note on your Facebook page.
13. Reward those who review
14. Include the customer’s name and picture when you post the testimonial
14 tips to get people talking about you

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Types of talkers/influencers
Source: WOMMA
Eg a
happy
customer
Eg an
employee
or supplier
Eg a
book club
leader
Eg a local
Councillor,
a teacher
Eg a TV
personality

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With which talkers can your library engage?
Attributes of talkers/influencers

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Where people talk and recommend
Source: WOMMA
Source: Ubiquity Media

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Case studies

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• Promoting 24/7 online resources for customers, branded as BCL WoW
(Without Walls)
Broward County Library (Florida, US)

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• WOMM goals :
– Staff members to play a vital role in communicating online services to
customers.
– Customers to champion the library’s cause by marketing these services
to their friends and family
– Library staff members receive a monthly email that announces the WoW
of the month they are encouraged to promote.
– Each branch given a supply of attractive palm cards for the service, with
simple instructions to make it easy for the customer to give it a try.
– Messages about the featured service are also posted on Facebook and
Twitter.
• Since the plan was put into action, BCL has noticed an increase in the use of
its online service offerings.
• For example, Freegal music downloads increased 400%, and online tutoring
sessions via Brainfuse and Zinio magazine downloads more than doubled.
Broward County Library

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• The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) needed to launch a
new online literacy resource
• Created a website to be a place that nurtured the sense of wonder
inside everyone. Welcome to Wonderopolis.
Wonderopolis (US)

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• Wonderopolis doesn’t start with answers. It starts with questions,
offering kids a new “Wonder of the Day,” every day, inspired by the
kinds of things that kids naturally wonder about—such as “Why are
flamingos pink?” or “How hot is the sun?”
• Strategy to launch Wonderopolis and grow it into a self-sustaining
literacy movement.
– Engage users in two-way dialog on Wonderopolis.org and
accompanying Facebook and Twitter accounts
– Identify “hand-raisers”— key audiences who loved the site and
could become part of a Wonderopolis community.
– During the summer, typically a slow time for educational
websites, the site was transformed into Camp What-A-Wonder,
with questions such as “What does poison ivy look like?”
– Phase II, now in process, will translate excitement around
Wonderopolis into a community that will live online and offline.
Wonderopolis

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• Wonderopolis.org launched in October 2010. In the first month, it
attracted more than 18,500 visitors.
• Between January and August, 2011, the number of monthly unique
visitors grew by 670 percent.
• Growth was fueled almost entirely by people talking about and
sharing Wonderopolis with each other. As word about Wonderopolis
has spread, so has the level of visitor engagement.
• Facebook and Twitter fans have contributed an average of 48
comments and 348 @Wonderopolis mentions, respectively, each
month.
• Time named Wonderopolis one of 2011’s 50 Best Websites, noting
that the articles are “just plain interesting, and make for addictive
reading even for those of us who are, in theory, all grown up.”
Wonderopolis

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Take a break then...
It’s your turn!

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• Break into small groups
• Enter library name
• Select specific initiative you wish to promote via WOMM
• Take 10 minutes to complete each of the 5 T’s
• Several groups will be asked to present their strategies
prior to lunch break
Group Workshop

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• Get them talking - deliver a great experience is a start
• Embed WOMM into your existing marketing touchpoints
– Ask for reviews and shoutouts
– Choose the right tools to engage
– Join the conversation
– Make your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts easily accessible
– Reward reviewers
• Be familiar with the psychology behind what makes people talk
• Understand who your talkers are and where they talk
Final thoughts