Hungry for resources on brand advocacy, word of mouth marketing, and social media? Well you’re in luck! We just launched our new resources page. Check out some of the featured content:

Whitepapers

• Turning Fans and Followers into Brand Advocates
• Top 5 Reasons Brands Should Focus on Earned Media
• How to Turn Your Customers into a Powerful Marketing Force Across Industries

Webinars

• A Marketing Imperative: Balancing Paid vs. Earned Media featuring David Armano (Edelman Digital) and Sean Corcoran (Forrester Research Inc)
• How to Turn Loyal Customers into Salespeople featuring Robin Korman (Wyndham Hotel Group) and John Moser (Denihan Hospitality Group)
• How to Make Social Media Work in B2B featuring Lauren McCadney (CDW) and Paul Dunay (Networked Insights)

Case Studies

• Intuit: Social Recommendations are Game-Changing For Us
• How Blurb Cut Customer Acquisition Costs in Half
• Chili’s Peppers in Brand Advocacy

Stats on Brand Advocates

• An Army of Brand Advocates- There are more than 60 million Brand Advocates in the US and billions worldwide, creating a virtual Army of Advocates.
• The Power of Brand Advocates- 92% of consumers trust “recommendations from people I know.” Only 37% trust search engine ads, and just 24% trust online banner ads.
• Brand Advocacy by Demographic- 50% of women with social network profiles purchased products because of information they got from friends or companies on social networking sites.

Videos

• Author David Meerman Scott on “How the Grateful Dead Enabled Fans to Spread Advocacy”
• AdAge’s Abbey Klaassen on “How to Convert a Passive Fan into a Brand Advocate”
• JetBlue’s Morgan Johnston on “How JetBlue Built Long Lasting Relationships on Their 10th Birthday”

Panel discussions and key takeaways from past events

• Brand Advocacy Series: How To Turn Word of Mouth and Social Media into Sales featuring Microsoft, JetBlue, CDW, Alberto Culver, and more
• The Next Step in Social: Beyond Listening and Engagement featuring Intuit, Adobe, and Altimeter Group
• Zuberance CEO, Rob Fuggetta, speaks at TEDx Constitution Drive on “Consumer Trust in the Social Media Age”

Visit the Brand Advocacy Resources Library

-Cara Fuggetta, Marketing Manager, Zuberance

5 Do’s and 5 Don’ts of Effective Word of Mouth Marketing  - Cara Fuggetta 
An article for the SocialTimes summarizing key takeaways from our New York Brand Advocacy Series panel discussion.

Social Media Revolution: 2011 Edition
Another Erik Qualman video that’s chock full of social media stats, 2011 edition.

Social Media Becoming Social Business - HBR- David Armano 
Social Media is turning into Social Business to most organizations.  Harvard Business Review suggests that there are areas of Social Business that are poised to explode: Organizational Design, Social Business Intelligence, and Cultures of Collaboration, Co-Creation & Shared Value.  Social Media and Social Business must be linked – the expectation for real-time responses is only increasing.

13 Startups that Wowed Us
Catalyst S+F’s Jim Nichols offers a list of companies that appear to have the stuff to move the needle for marketers.

Small Businesses That Understand Social Media
At this point, it is almost irresponsible to not have a social media presence as part of your marketing mix.  However, many businesses continue to be behind the trend.  This NY Times article highlights two small businesses who are successfully harnessing their social media.  Their approaches are interesting, inexpensive, effective, and easy to reproduce.

-Lucy Arnold, Marketing Intern, Zuberance

Last week, Zuberance sponsored an event held by the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association’s (SVAMA) on “The Next Step in Social: Beyond Listening & Engagement” at the Adobe headquarters in San Jose, CA. The highly engaged audience was there to gain insights from top marketers from Adobe, Intuit, Altimeter Group, and Zuberance on energizing Brand Advocates and measuring social media ROI. Take a look at the panel recording below.

Keynote Presentation by Chris Arens, Partner, Catalyst S+F

Panel Discussion: The Next Step in Social: Beyond Listening & Engagement

Featured Panel:

• Moderator – Chris Arens, noted influencer, author and marketing/ad agency veteran
• Susan Etlinger, Consultant, Altimeter Group
• Laura Messerschmitt, Senior Marketing Manager, Intuit
• Rob Fuggetta, Founder & CEO, Zuberance
• Maria Poveromo, Director of Social Media, Adobe Systems

Key takeaways from the discussion:

• Globalization of business is not an excuse for lacking a good relationship with your customers.
• The moment you start calling your customers “end users” respect goes out the door. They are PEOPLE.
• “Thinking about buying an Advocacy army? Forget it. You can’t buy love.” -@christianarens
• “Recommendations are the new advertising.” – CMO of Visa
• B2B users are the heaviest users of social media, so it pays to have a strong community to guide them to your brand.
• Measuring social media ROI varies across businesses. Zuberance developed ROA (Return on Advocacy) to measure the value of a recommendation.
• “Would you really stay away from social media even if there was no ROI? No, of course not.” – @robfuggetta
• 9 out of 10 people are listening but not posting on branded social channels. Deal with negative comments publicly and show your community that you’re listening. Some of the best campaigns come from taking negative responses and fixing it, which can turn detractors into Advocates.
• Intuit invites their Advocates into the “Intuit Inner Circle” where they are given access to exclusive events and information.
• The voice of customer helps fuel innovation. Adobe uses their Facebook fan page as a forum to engage with users, gain insight, and bring that info back to product development.
• “Social media is bringing people into the company. It’s not about getting through gate keepers anymore.” – @mariapoveromo
• The key to energizing Word of Mouth? Simply give Advocates the tools to recommend in ways that are easy, convenient, are distributable across channels.

Thank you again to the panelists and everyone who came out!

-Cara Fuggetta, Marketing Manager, Zuberance

Below is part 4 of 5 of the Chicago Brand Advocacy Series panel discussion on “How to Turn Word of Mouth and Social Media into Sales.”

You can find key takeaways, photos, and more videos from the Chicago Brand Advocacy Series here.

Below is part 3 of 5 of the Chicago Brand Advocacy Series panel discussion on “How to Turn Word of Mouth and Social Media into Sales.”

You can find key takeaways, photos, and more videos from the Chicago Brand Advocacy Series here.

Below is part 2 of 5 of the Chicago Brand Advocacy Series panel discussion on “How to Turn Word of Mouth and Social Media into Sales.”

You can find key takeaways, photos, and more videos from the Chicago Brand Advocacy Series here.

Last week, we teamed up with Big Fuel and brought the Brand Advocacy Series to New York where top marketers discussed “How to Turn Word of Mouth and Social Media into Sales.” The panel provided attendees with insights on the value of brand advocacy and what companies like JetBlue, Microsoft, and Kotex are doing to energize Word of Mouth.

Featured Panel:

• Moderated by: Abbey Klaassen, Digital Editor, Advertising Age (@amklaassen)
• Rob Fuggetta, Founder/CEO, Zuberance (@robfuggetta)
• Avi Savar, Founder, Big Fuel (@avisavar)
• Umang Shah, Social Strategiest, Microsoft (@umang_shah)
• Morgan Johnston, Corporate Communication Manager, JetBlue (@MHJohnston)

View photos from the event on the Zuberance Facebook Page.

Watch on-site interviews with panelists and attendees (you can find more videos on our YouTube channel, ZubeTV):

• How do you energize Word of Mouth?
• Microsoft knows that their customers sell their product better than they do
• The ongoing confusion between Advocates and Influencers

Key Takeaways

• An Advocate is someone who recommends brands or products without being paid to do so. Use the”Ultimate Question” to identify Advocates: “How likely are you to recommend our brand to your friends and colleagues?” Someone who scores 9 or 10 on a scale from 1 to 10 is an Advocate.
• JetBlue conducts surveys, looks at email, and discussions in social media. They all add up to create the “Voice of the Customer.”
• Influencers and Advocates are not the same. Advocates are consumers that don’t necessarily have to be bloggers, but within their own social circles they’re very influential. But having an influencer be an Advocate for your brand is the ideal situation because they recommend in a genuine way and have significant reach.
• 92% trust WOM from their peers, but only 18% trust bloggers. Nothing is more influential than people you know.
• JetBlue: We want everyone to be a promoter of our company regardless of how many people are following you.
• JetBlue: We saw 13 million of media dollars generated from doing the “All you can fly in a month” campaign. The community that formed through this campaign organized a party in Vegas (on their own) where over 200 people attended. Jetblue thanked the community by showing up to the Vegas party with boxes of sweatshirts. JetBlue didn’t do anything more than set up and host the community. They didn’t do anything necessarily to “juice” it.
• Zuberance is dead set against giving incentives to get people to recommend. While it’s NOT OK to incentivize advocates, it IS OK to thank them after recommending your brand.
• The key to energizing Advocates is to make it easy for them to recommend.
• Content drives conversation and the right content can drive the conversation you want.
• Microsoft: Advocates are invaluable to us. We don’t have the influence that an advocate has. We simply can’t have the same impact as an advocate. Coming from Microsoft will never be as impactful.
• How do you get people to talk about sensitive subjects? Answer is the engagement point, where the brand and the consumer meet. Connect with them on something that’s important to them. Example: Kotex fits, period. It’s about “what fits you.” So it was about taking the issue personal. What was important to the young woman.
• “The 6am Test” – What’s important to consumers when they wake up? Be relevant to your audience on their agenda? Leverage the interests and behaviors of the people you’re talking to. Understand the person you’re talking to before you engage.
• You have to earn the right to monetize. You do that through engagement.

Listen (or download the audio) of the podcast discussion here.

Below is part 5 of 5 of the Chicago Brand Advocacy Series panel discussion on “How to Turn Word of Mouth and Social Media into Sales.”

You can find key takeaways, photos, and more videos from the Chicago Brand Advocacy Series here.

Below is part 1 of 5 of the Chicago Brand Advocacy Series panel discussion on “How to Turn Word of Mouth and Social Media into Sales.”

You can find key takeaways, photos, and more videos from the Chicago Brand Advocacy Series here.