Promoting won't get you WOM - unless you're a coupon

While I am on the topic of Authenticity and how it is such a key component to success these days, I wanted to bring another topic into the conversation - how does it help you build "Word-of-Mouth" with your audience.  From a business perspective, this is the holy grail - "getting more of the right people talking more about you."

To start with, it is key to understand that Word-of-Mouth from a positive perspective only comes from someone that has a certain degree of trust with you.  If someone doesn't trust you, even in the slightest way, they won't talk positively about you and spread the word - won't happen.  So your first order of business is to create some level of trust with your audience.  The ideal of course is to have a great deal of trust and a relationship - this gives you massive word-of-mouth.  Also, it is important to remember the degree or intensity of their word-of-mouth is also proportional to the amount of trust you have earned - more trust = more passion in their word-of-mouth.

Another key ingredient is this issue of promotion.  Too many people today are using social media for "promotion" and somehow believe they will increase their word-of-mouth if they do more of it.  That is so "90s and doesn't work in today's connected world, unless you are a "coupon" that someone wants to share.  If you're not, then you need to step away from the microphone and let your customer or prospect or partner or employee have turn.  They need to talk to you so you can understand what they need from you.

Look at it this way.  If you were at a party and standing in a small group of people and all you were doing is promoting and talking about yourself, how long do you think it would be before everyone left the conversation - not long.  In an earlier post I talked about the concept of "It's all about Me" which talked  about our new world and audience.  The question to ask yourself is, "If you are always promoting, how does your audience get to know the real you and if they don't get to know the real you, why would you expect them to talk more about you in an authentic way and build more word-of-mouth?"  They can't and they won't.

You  can really create a desire in people to talk more about you and talk about you through the most powerful sales and marketing tool ever invented, "word-of-mouth".  Just stop promoting and start listening and engaging in an authentic way and as they get to know and appreciate the real you, they will be anxious to spread the word - which is what it's all about.