I wrote a blog post on one of my other blogs called, “Have you “THANKED” your ADVOCATES today?” because I am so passionate about Advocacy. Then it struck me, this would be worth talking about on our WOM10 site as well. Because at the end of the day, the greatest Word-of-Mouth you can get is from your ADVOCATES…
Think about this simple formula and see if it doesn’t make sense to you as you think about creating more Word-of-Mouth.
If people feel good about who you are as a professional and the service you have delivered to them, they will be satisfied. Satisfied people don’t proactively to out of their way to tell others about you. They are satisfied, that’s it.
If someone thinks about you and what you do as memorable or exceptional or incredibly insightful (bordering on being a thought leader) then they want to tell others about you. This is regardless of whether it is a current customer – Advocates DON’T have to be a customer. An advocate is simply someone that is passionate and trusting about who you are and what you do and they want to tell others about you…proactively.
They do this because, for selfish reasons, it makes them look good to associate with this type of individual. Putting the selfish reasons aside, they also want to talk about you because they feel you can be helpful to their colleagues, customers, or friends. This “DESIRE” coupled with “ACTION” to share information about you turns them into an advocate. On their own, and without prompting, they will literally share this information with others. This is POWERFUL and what makes an Advocate.
To really reach the pinnacle of Word-of-Mouth, you simply need advocates. So take the time, as I talked about in my post on The New Advocate during this time of year to thank those special few who trust you and feel you are worth talking about. You can’t buy this kind of marketing – because it is the only type that is about YOU, not about the DEAL.
