People ask me all the time, “Isn’t it good enough is we have people talking about us…both in person and on some social networks?” First, I always tell them CONGRATULATIONS because most people/organizations don’t get talked about (actually very few on average). So right away they are ahead of the majority…that’s a good thing.
But if you take it a step further, wouldn’t it be great if you had the RIGHT people talking about you on a regular basis? Just having people talk about you is one thing, but to really get “Word-of-Mouth on Stroids” you need to leverage the audience that you want to influence or work with.
For example, if you were a distribution company and distributed green widgets, would it help or hurt you if you had people talking about you that used blue widgets? It wouldn’t hurt…but it might not really help you in the long run. Just because someone is talking about you doesn’t make them the right ones to talk about you.
The first question is to ask WHY are they talking about you? Most likely it isn’t because of the customer experience you offer them because they don’t buy from you. Is it because of something physical like your trucks or business or what you share on your social channels? Most likely. They have come across something they think is worthy of talking about…but they still don’t buy from you. Could they refer you to others that could buy from you? Absolutely…so they shouldn’t be ignored. But they shouldn’t be where you put your attention. We call this group of people “the ride-alongs” because they ride along with your content but can’t do much to help your organization today.
Many companies I talk to get distracted with this and lose sight of their audience…their customers. Stay focused on what is important to YOUR CUSTOMERS…what they want to know about and what would help them in their businesses. If you focus your “content strategy” on what will help your customers the most, they will talk about you. Let the “ride-alongs” talk as much as they want…but they shouldn’t be your target for content…your customers are your target for content.
If you always ask yourself…“What can I talk about today that will help my customers in their business,” you will stay on track. You will get them talking, sharing, engaging with you and your content. And this is a great place to live in the world of Word-of-Mouth. And if you don’t know what they want you to talk about, this should be a great “gut check” to put a plan in place to figure that out.
