“60 Seconds with…” features leading experts in Word of Mouth marketing, social media marketing, customer experience, and related areas. Today’s guest is David Rodnitzky, Founder of PPC Associates.

How is the Groundswell of Word of Mouth and social media changing search engine marketing?
First, I think WOM and social media is gradually replacing search results as the go-to source for answers to specific types of questions. Consumers and businesses have always relied on word of mouth to find service providers, for example. If you needed a good lawyer B.I. (before Internet), you asked your co-worker or your next door neighbor for a recommendation. But as our society became more transient, it became harder and harder to find that trusted resource for a referral. As a result, I think a lot of people saw the Internet and search engines in particular as the next best thing to a trusted referral. The rise of WOM and social media, however, is helping people create trusted networks in a transient society. So while I may not really know my next door neighbor well enough to know on his door and ask for advice about legal services, I can now go online and post a question on a site like Yahoo Answers, or ask my friends on Facebook, or even send out a tweet on Twitter. I’ll get a lot of responses, and I will likely value those responses more highly than the results I might find on Google.

The other interesting aspect of social media for me is the level of demographic honesty. Search marketers are always trying to infer intent from a search query. If someone types in “buy email marketing software” we assume that we should market email marketing software to them. But there are a lot of queries on search engines that aren’t nearly that specific and we are left guessing about what the user really wants. With social media like Facebook, users tend to be very honest about who they are and what they want. Users tell you their birth date, location, marital status, age, gender, and even their interests, occupation and title. In many cases, there’s no inference required to target the right people – the user has already told you who he is and what he wants!

Can you give us an example of a company that is doing a good job of integrating search with Word of Mouth and Social Media marketing?
I have a client called Robbins Brothers – they are a jewelry store in LA, San Diego and Dallas that focuses on engagement rings. They have a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account, and of course paid search campaigns. They also run TV ads and have some great, potentially viral TV ads. They are using paid search to attract people who have expressed specific intent (e.g. “purchase engagement ring”) and then using YouTube and TV to evoke an emotional response through their TV ads. And the Facebook page is sort of a hybrid of the two – it allows fan to interact directly with Robbins Brothers, but it also is a great entry point for people surfing Facebook who are specifically looking to learn more about their engagement ring purchase options.

So I think that a company like Robbins Brothers gets the fact that you have to market to people differently based on the consideration stage and the medium. Plastering their Facebook fan page with direct response ads invoking fans to buy an engagement ring this instant would only alienate users, but a subtle branding message on paid search wouldn’t get a high enough click through rate to drive much traffic.

What’s the most important piece of advice you would give to companies that want to improve their SEM/SEO results?
I can only really talk to the SEM aspect of the question. When I take over a new client’s SEM campaigns, the two things that almost always need immediate tweaking are their tracking and their landing page. Tracking needs to be very granular – from the keyword all the way to the final conversion, even if that conversion occurs offline (such as through a sales force in the case of an enterprise client). Landing pages need constant testing and need to tell the user exactly what you want him/her to do. You can get a great landing page developed by a freelance designer for around $1000-$1500 and you can literally double your conversion rate in the process. It’s amazing to me how many companies refuse to allocate any budget at all to improving the performance of their landing pages.

What brands and products do you advocate to your friends and colleagues?
Amazon.com – great customer service, great shipping. Freshbooks for small business invoicing. EchoSign for online signatures. There’s also a great book called “Four Steps to the Epiphany” that I recommend to anyone thinking of starting up or in the midst of starting a business. And, of course, Zuberance to create a volunteer salesforce!

This week’s “60 Seconds with…” features John Moore, WOM Enthusiast at WOMMA. John was formerly in marketing at Starbucks Coffee and Whole Foods Market. Today, through his Brand Autopsy Marketing Practice, he shares marketing advice with businesses aspiring to earn unwavering devotion from customers and employees.

As a long-time believer in the power of word-of-mouth marketing, John is putting his experience and passion to good use as a WOM Enthusiast for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. In this role, John educates and motivates businesses to use word-of-mouth marketing effectively and ethically. And, he serves as a WOMMA spokesperson addressing hot-button topics covered by traditional media and joining interesting conversations about WOM in the social media world. John is also the author of the well-read Brand Autopsy blog and the author of TRIBAL KNOWLEDGE, a business management book. He lives, works, and plays in Austin, TX.

Word of Mouth marketing is very hot. What’s driving the interest in WOM marketing?
Research statistics overwhelmingly tell us friends trust what their friends say more than people trust what companies say in their advertising. Traditional advertising just doesn’t have the same juice it once it did. I recently read a statistic from a study that said the typical American mentions specific brands 90 times a week in everyday conversations. Companies would love to be talked about in those conversations and that’s why WOM is becoming a more relied upon marketing discipline.

In your opinion, are brands maximizing the opportunity they have to energize their customers who are Advocates of their brand?
Unfortunately, no. Most brands struggle with how best and how often to communicate with their advocates and evangelical customers. Also, many brands still do not want to listen to their customers for fear they may say something “off-brand” or negative. Too many businesses lack confidence that their products and services deliver great customer experiences. If a business has such confidence, they will find ways to energize customers to talk.

You’ve been blogging about WOM truths. Do you have a truth about Word of Mouth advocacy that you care to share with us?
When companies think of WOM, many times they will create attention-grabbing stunts to get noticed. That stunt may create buzz, but the buzz doesn’t last. It’s a one and done blip of marketing gimmickry. A longer-lasting way to create buzz is to foster advocacy relationships with customers. Which leads me to an important WOM TRUTH:  “Buzz doesn’t Create Advocates. Advocates Create Buzz.”

Aside from WOMMA, what other brands do you advocate?
Ever since my first visit to Chipotle in 1998, I’ve been a big advocate. The Chipotle brand is a talkable brand on so many levels from their oversized burritos to their stance on sustainability to their unique in-store operations. I’ve long-championed Costco as a place to buy quality stuff at a good price. The over-the-top customer service from Lexus has made a big-time advocate of the brand.

This week, “60 Seconds with…” highlights Anthea Stratigos, co-founder and CEO of Outsell, the only research and advisory firm focused on the publishing, information, and education industries. Anthea Stratigos co-founded Outsell, Inc. with Greg Chagaris, creating the leading research and advisory firm focused exclusively on the information and publishing industry. She established the company’s research agenda and served as the firm’s first chief analyst. As CEO, she draws upon her deep experience in research and analytic businesses to drive product development, operations, marketing, and general management to lead all facets of the organization.

What are the key marketing problems keeping publishers and information providers up at night?
There are several problems but the biggest and those that come first to mind are threefold:  publishers that are ad dependent are finding the notion of ‘ads’ becoming quaint, dare I say obsolete. These days anyone can go direct to anyone and publishers are being disintermediated by companies investments in their own web sites. They’re moving marketing dollars there and this reallocation is coming straight out of ad budgets. The second is proliferation and commoditization of content forcing publishers and information providers to deliver new and better value-added services to stay ahead of the curve and prop up the value proposition for their advertising/marketing services or for their paid content depending on their business model.  Last, the industry overall is just pretty bad at marketing and the needed skillsets in product management especially aren’t where they need to be for the onslaught that’s occurring.  I’m pretty passionate about where the money is going and marketing (or lack thereof) in this industry and my blog is focused on this topic. Visit Anthea’s blog >>

Outsell’s most recent annual marketing study predicts that $65 billion will be siphoned away from traditional advertising and spent instead on companies’ own Websites and internet marketing. What role does Outsell see for Word of Mouth and social media marketing in this shift?
This is clearly one of the areas firms are investing in as they move money to their sites. They are investing in social software platforms, user generated content and new content, analytics, all the ‘stuff’ that makes their own sites sing. Word of Mouth is an important part of this movement and I think it’s just catching on as an important notion. People have been talking about it but I don’t’ think firms really capitalizing on it which is where I think Zuberance and related firms will play a key role.

Can you give us an example of a company that is doing a good job of engaging and energizing customers in the information industry?
Hmmmm… Clearly LinkedIn is doing a great job building community for professionals and putting legitimate business models and new services around that network.  Nature Publishing, an over 100 year old publishing brand has done an amazing jobs with scientists.  For years financial professionals have begun a job insisting on having their own Bloomberg terminal as a sign of status.  Dwell Magazine is doing a great job too. There are examples but in general people don’t get as passionate about information as say their products from apple or American Outfitter or Porsche. It’s just different.

What brands and products do you advocate to your friends and colleagues?
I’m a fanatic about Charles DeLisle in San Francisco and Susan Ciminelli in NY, and Redd my favourite restaurant in the entire region (based in the Napa Valley) I love Apple, and though I use none of their products I’m a huge fan of what they’ve accomplished.  I like Hotel Sofitel. I tend to get less attached to global brands and more attached to people or small businesses.

“60 Seconds with…” features leading experts in Word of Mouth marketing, social media marketing, customer experience, and related areas. Today’s guest is Desirree Madison-Biggs, Director of Customer Experience at Symantec.

Can you give us a brief overview of Symantec’s use of Net Promoter?
Net Promoter is one of the primary ways in which Symantec measure’s its performance every quarter.  It’s derived from feedback from a broad cross section of individuals across all three of our primary segments:  consumer, partner and business.  Annual targets are set at the beginning of each fiscal year and a portion of variable compensation for VPs and above is tied to achieving targets.  Further, Net Promoter acts as a ‘north star’, helping to guide prioritization and focus stakeholders within Symantec on key touch points within the customer lifecycle.  It summary, it focused the company on the voice of the customer and helps to drive a customer centric culture.

What’s the biggest benefit that companies can get from Net Promoter?
The biggest benefit is that it is an objective and holistic metric that can help align the entire company around delivering experiences that drive growth.

What is the most important piece of advice you would give companies considering using Net Promoter?
Get executive buy-in and ensure that it is driven from the top.  This metric and the actions that are driven by it  should be the top of the executive list and be communicated regularly.  But there’s a second piece of advice that is just as critical.  The expectations should be set that the bigger the company, the longer the effort will take – it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

What brands and products do you advocate to your friends and colleagues?
Boden (clothing), Amazon, Lexus, WholeFoods, AGA (appliances)