WERE BACK:

Welcome back old and new IT Bloke Customers and Readers alike.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your patience, as we put together and launched this our new Multi-Blog website.

Don't worry we have not changed our ethos in anway,  just our site.  We will still be bringing you our own unique and ubiquitous brand of Gonzo Journalism tailored for the Social Media age that you have all come to know and love.  However now our new Multi-Blog site will allow us to expand on that and also make your life easier as it now has three totally separate Blogs/Sections:

HOME PAGE: which is now totally devoted to all things Word of Mouth {W.O.M.} Marketing.

product reviews and of course championing those less known about concepts, causes,  problems and facts that they don't want us to know about!.

IT BLOKE's: is our totally new section, where we will be blogging about the more leisure and cultural orientated side of being an IT Bloke or Blokette for that matter.

And so,  our dear  friends,  bookworms, most noble fellow drinkers, frustrated burglars, affronted policemen, upright citizens with furled umbrellas and secret buccaneering dreams--that seems to be very nearly all for now. It has been nice having you with us, and we hope you will come again, not once, but many time and once again thank you for your patience, we hope you enjoy reading our new site as much as we have enjoyed making it for you.

Kind Regards & Best Wishes ~ Ashe, Toby & all our  Staff & Gonzo Journalists @ IT Bloke - London.....

Organic vs. Amplified Word of Mouth:

The following terms attempt to explain the differences between word of mouth that results from day-to-day interaction with customers and the kind that occurs as a result of a specific campaign to create or encourage it. 

By no means are these terms commonly accepted. Some marketers feel that word of mouth is always there, and that a campaign can amplify it, but that word of mouth is the same regardless of its origin. Other marketers don't use campaigns specifically to promote word of mouth, and feel that there is an important distinction.

Organic WOM: occurs naturally when people become advocates because they are happy with a product and have a natural desire to share their support and enthusiasm. Practices that enhance organic word of mouth activity include: 

* Focusing on customer satisfaction 
* Improving product quality and usability 
* Responding to concerns and criticism 
* Opening a dialog and listening to people 
* Earning customer loyalty

Amplified WOM: occurs when marketers launch campaigns designed to encourage or accelerate WOM in existing or new communities. Practices that amplify word of mouth activity include: 

* Creating communities 
* Developing tools that enable people to share their opinions 
* Motivating advocates and evangelists to actively promote a product 
* Giving advocates information that they can share
* Using advertising or publicity designed to create buzz or start a conversation 
* Identifying and reaching out to influential individuals and communities
* Researching and tracking online conversations

Now we actually know what the various form of Word of Mouth Marketing are, in my next article I will actually be giving you some positive examples of each, so keep checking back, Regards..... Ashe, IT Bloke - London.

BUSINESS TIPS FOR TWITTER:

More and more businesses are using Twitter. However, the return on the investment of time and money needed to use Twitter effectively might be stopping some businesses from using Twitter. Other companies might still be confused as to what Twitter is, why it matters, and how it can be used.

If your business is still on the sidelines when it comes to Twitter and you, as a marketer, need some ammo to better sell-in the benefits of using Twitter … consider reading the just published 

I’ve whipped a What? | So What? | Now What? abstract of the Twitter 101 Guide using verbatim snippets. Read below, then read in full.  ~ Regards, Toby...  IT Bloke - London.

WHAT?
“Twitter connects you to your customers right now, in a way that was never before possible. As a business, you can use it to quickly share information with people interested in your company, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and other people who care about your company.”

(“As an individual user, you can use Twitter to tell a company (or anyone else) that you’ve had a great–or disappointing–experience with their business, offer product ideas, and learn about great offers.”)

SO WHAT?
“For example, let’s say you work for a custom bike company. If you run a search for your brand, you may find people posting messages about how happy they are that your bike lets them ride in the French Alps—giving you a chance to share tips about cyclist-friendly cafes along their route.”

“You don’t have to run a bike shop or a relatively small company to get good stuff out of Twitter. Businesses of all kinds, including major brands, increasingly find that listening and engaging on the service lead to happier customers, passionate advocates, key product improvements and, in many cases, more sales.”

NOW WHAT?
“So you’re ready to be interesting on Twitter—but what are you going to post about? That depends on your goals for using Twitter, which may include things like building deeper relationships, getting on the radar of potential new customers or partners or providing customer service.”

“You can meet several communication goals simultaneously by thinking about your Twitter account as a friendly information booth or coffee bar. It’s a good place for people to ask you spontaneous questions of all kinds, and it’s also a good spot to share juicy information they might find useful. When you hit stride with these exchanges, they often lead to unexpected, valuable relationships.”

LEARN MORE
business.twitter.com/twitter101

Word of Mouth is…

Word of Mouth is…

* The voice of the customer
* A natural, genuine, honest process
* People seeking advice from each other * Customers talking about products, services, or brands


Word of Mouth Marketing is…

Recognizing that a happy customer is the greatest endorsement: We work to create customer enthusiasm instead of pushing marketing messages .

Giving customers a voice: Providing something worth talking about Providing tools that make it easier for them to share their opinions.

Listening to consumers: Engaging them in open, unfiltered conversation Promptly and honestly responding to their concerns Valuing customer opinion, whether it is positive, negative, or neutral.

Engaging the community: Finding the right people and connecting them to each other Helping new communities to form Participating in and supporting existing communities and conversations.


The only marketing based on genuinely passionate people...

Word of mouth marketing is the most honest form of marketing, building upon people’s natural desire to share their experiences with family, friends, and colleagues.

Our work empowers people and gives them a voice … a process that can never be reversed. If we succeed in satisfying our customers, we will benefit greatly because they will share their enthusiasm and support our brand. But if we fail, that same voice will hold us accountable and broadcast our failings.

Only honest marketers with confidence in their products dare engage in word of mouth marketing -- because it will backfire if the promise of your marketing message isn't backed up by reality. Once you give people a voice, they will tell the true story of your company, good or bad.

Word of mouth marketing is self-policing and pushes marketers to create better products and provide genuine satisfaction.

I will be back soon with my next article where I will open for debate; Organic vs. Amplified Word of Mouth~ 

Regards, Ashe… IT Bloke - London.

THE TWITTERVERSE:

Well we have all heard of the BlogoSphere, well now we have the Twitterverse, {obviously, or so I am told}.

I found this rather interesting graphic of the twitterverse and being as though Twitter has really proved it's metal in the past few days in Iran, I thought that I would share it with you.

It  ‘visually charts the important tools to help communications, service, marketing, and community professionals more effectively navigate, engage, analyze and measure participation on Twitter’You can find the full size version here. ~ Regards..... Toby: IT Bloke... London.

Types of Word of Mouth Marketing:

Word of mouth marketing encompasses dozens of marketing techniques that are geared toward encouraging and helping people to talk to each other about products and services. 

Common types of word of mouth marketing are listed below. This is not a complete list -- we're publishing it as a means to begin a dialog toward standardization, and we welcome your comments. (Not everyone agrees that each of these should be part of word of mouth marketing, and many marketers use different terms to describe them.)

~

Buzz Marketing: Using high-profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about your brand.

Viral Marketing: Creating entertaining or informative messages that are designed to be passed along in an exponential fashion, often electronically or by email.

Community Marketing: Forming or supporting niche communities that are likely to share interests about the brand (such as user groups, fan clubs, and discussion forums); providing tools, content, and information to support those communities.

Grassroots Marketing: Organizing and motivating volunteers to engage in personal or local outreach.


Evangelist Marketing: Cultivating evangelists, advocates, or volunteers who are encouraged to take a leadership role in actively spreading the word on your behalf.

~

Product Seeding: Placing the right product into the right hands at the right time, providing information or samples to influential individuals.

Influencer Marketing: Identifying key communities and opinion leaders who are likely to talk about products and have the ability to influence the opinions of others. 

Cause Marketing: Supporting social causes to earn respect and support from people who feel strongly about the cause.

Conversation Creation: Interesting or fun advertising, emails, catch phrases, entertainment, or promotions designed to start word of mouth activity. 

Brand Blogging: Creating blogs and participating in the blogosphere, in the spirit of open, transparent communications; sharing information of value that the blog community may talk about.

Referral Programs: Creating tools that enable satisfied customers to refer their friends.

I hope that has given you a better idea of the many different types of WOM Marketing, I will be back soon with some new articles to further explain the actual concept of WOM ~ Regards, Ashe… IT Bloke - London.

”Twitter in Plain English”

I have only recently started using the phenomena that is Twitter, in fact I have only really started getting into it and realised it true marketing power, since I joined IT Bloke, although I have been a Facebook and Myspace user for many years now.

On the face of it Twitter seems really quite  simple in fact a lot simpler than Myspace or Facebook, I mean is it not just 140 characters about what you are doing isn't it?.

However it is only when you start to get into it and start Tweeting a little more heavily that you realise just how sophisticated stylish and elegant an interface and forum it can truly be when used and implemented effectively, {we have seen many good and bad examples of its use at IT Bloke}.

Initially though I found it somewhat difficult to grasp the holistic concept of Twitter and found it a little frustrating and almost dare I say a it, a little simplistic and childlike compaired to the other social networking players in the market place.

Recently though I came across  a great little video guide to Twitter on YouTube, {"Twitter in Plain English"}, that really would have made my life a lot simpler when I started Tweeting.

So I thought that I would post it, so if there is any of you out there who are relatively new to Twitter it could serve as a great introduction and possibly save you from the same frustration that I went through, anyway see what you think ~Regards, Toby… IT Bloke, {G.B.}.

An Introduction to WOM Marketing:

Word of Mouth: The act of consumers providing information to other consumers.

Word of Mouth Marketing: Giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place. It is the art and science of building active, mutually beneficial consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer communications.

What is WOM Marketing?

Word of mouth is a pre-existing phenomenon that marketers are only now learning how to harness, amplify, and improve. Word of mouth marketing isn't about creating word of mouth -- it's learning how to make it work within a marketing objective.

That said, word of mouth can be encouraged and facilitated. Companies can work hard to make people happier, they can listen to consumers, they can make it easier for them to tell their friends, and they can make certain that influential individuals know about the good qualities of a product or service.

Word of mouth marketing empowers people to share their experiences. It's harnessing the voice of the customer for the good of the brand. And it's acknowledging that the unsatisfied customer is equally powerful.

Word of mouth can't be faked or invented. Attempting to fake word of mouth is unethical and creates a backlash, damages the brand, and tarnishes the corporate reputation. Legitimate word of mouth marketing acknowledges consumers’ intelligence -- it never attempts to fool them. Ethical marketers reject all tactics related to manipulation, deception, infiltration, or dishonesty.

All word of mouth marketing techniques are based on the concepts of customer satisfaction, two-way dialog, and transparent communications. The basic elements are:

• Educating people about your products and services
• Identifying people most likely to share their opinions
• Providing tools that make it easier to share information
• Studying how, where, and when opinions are being shared
• Listening and responding to supporters, detractors, and neutrals

Anyway I hope that has given you a better idea of what WOM actually is, I will be back soon with some new articles about WOM and its various forms,  styles and implementations ~ Regards, Ashe… IT Bloke - London.

CORPORATE SOCIAL NETWORKING:

JUST A GIMMICK OR A POWERFUL MARKETING TOOL?

While social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube are becoming as dominant as newspapers, magazines, radio and television for consumers, corporate usage of social networking has been limited to individual employees using social networking tools such as Linked In to build their professional networks. However, organisations are now beginning to understand and embrace the benefits of corporate social networking.

Corporate social networking offers the opportunity to encourage your customers to interact more closely with you and each other driving traffic to your website and adding value to customers' perception of you. After all, you're providing them with access to your social network and the amount of industry information that can be generated by your users and made accessible to others is potentially immense.

The early stigma that surrounded user generated content is now disappearing as users latch on to the real value of information provided by their peers, partners and competitors. In fact, as such projects develop, some organisations are recognising that it's not a bad thing to allow customers to communicate amongst themselves and there are real benefits to be derived.

Customers have a tendency to trust their network in preference to your marketing and the interactions they have online can provide you with an excellent insight into the needs of your markets and the perceptions your customers have of your service. This is real information straight from the users' keyboards and in some lights could be looked at as more valuable than expensive market research.

Placing yourself at the heart of these discussions by providing the platform for such interactions, enhances customer perceptions of your organisation and is an innovative way of communicating with them. In addition, you become involved in your customers' conversations and are able to position yourself as their friend and a member of their network.

In a variety of forms, internet-based social networking has been around since the inception of the web and there is now a generation in the workplace that expects to chat about issues they face in the workplace in interactive forums. These aren't the passive media consumers of previous generations who would read direct mail or industry publications, these users want to participate, question and discuss.

Such users can only increase in number as subsequent generations of advanced internet users come to the job market. Those organisations that provide a vibrant, well-managed, easy-to-use platform upon which their customers, suppliers and other interested parties can network, debate and share knowledge will have in their hands a powerful marketing tool that places them at the centre of the debate. ~ Regards: Toby... IT Bloke... London.

Social Media Futures:

Ever evolving and ever surprising, social media reliably outstrips future predictions; but trends meccaWired has just published two pretty convincing visions of where it could be headed next.

In one corner, dissenting voices too. Watch the developer’s video below and decide for yourself whether Google have nailed the start of the next great social media phase.

In the other corner Wired puts 60% of new Twitter users drop off after the first month has certainly tarnished the tool’s indestructible image), the ‘random, fleeting observation’ that is Twitter’s hallmark has become an entrenched ‘quantum of thought’ from which other cultural forms and institutions will arise.

The two visions actually compliment each other. Add this microblogging mindset that NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen has dubbed I discussed yesterday, and you get a mindblowing idea of how social media could continue to boost communication, creativity and discovery on a whole new scale.... ~ Regards,  Ashe:  IT Bloke... London.