Word And Mouth

The world of tech was uproarious when Google declared it was getting personal with your search and unleashing Search, plus Your World.

It was a clever move, timing the launch as every tech blogger was hanging out at the Lenovo stand at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in ‘Vegas.

It’s a hugely controversial decision by Google, which is doing rather a lot of things right now that make me wonder whether its ultimate intent is to be a content, rather than search, company.

Search Plus My World

So what’s changed? Well, for starters, unless you switch it off Google now delivers ‘personalised search’ based on what other people in your Google+ ecosystem are reading and voting on.

All very good news if you have a disparate and diverse set of buddies: Not so great if they’re all of a certain inclination or bias, in which case you have to question the legitimacy and relevancy of search results.

Not only that, but because Google is swallowing hard on its all-out goal of getting as many people hooked in to Google+ – its newish social network – as possible, you’ll notice some pretty interesting and leaning things happening on the right hand side of your results page.

Search for ‘music’, for example, and only those artists with G+ will appear there. Search ‘Mark Zuckerberg’ and rather unexpectedly his G+ profile occupies prime-time real estate, even though there are precisely zero updates there. Perhaps if there was less bias and more focus on relevancy, we’d have Zuck’s Facebook profile further up the page?

You can argue that Facebook and Twitter are not sharing their ‘firehoses’ of information – literally, the data generated by its users – with Google, which makes things rather challenging from an archival and repository-generating standpoint. But that doesn’t help us, the consumers.

What does this mean to me?

As I’ve said before and I’ll be preaching in my book (soon!), there is no more valuable place to offer your most valuable content than on your own website. It’s the only rug you own on the world of the web, and noone can pull it from under you.

If you’re not paying for  something, it is you, and not it, that is the product. The Googles, Facebooks and Twitters can switch off tomorrow and you have precisely no recourse on the content you’ve squirted in.

So yes, your website is bigger than Google. It means more to you, your customers and your peers than Google ever could – and nothing will move away from your favour to change that, anytime soon.

• Further reading from Wired on Search, plus Your World.

It was while I was writing the third chapter of our forthcoming book (giggly excited about this; I may have bored you to tears already about this so please have the mascara replacement session on us) that I realised two very important things:

1. Elevator pitches are tough. Unless you get your customers to do it for you: Next time, that’s my preferred option
2. I hadn’t really nailed down ours. That ‘less than 10 word introduction to what Word And Mouth is, does and stands for’.

Conscious of being ruled out of the next series of The Apprentice on that basis, I decided to help unmuddy the waters and explain why I created Word And Mouth.

As a journalist I’ve always worked on finding the story in every situation. Because in every situation, there is a story.

And the same rules apply to businesses. Every business has a story. Every business has thousands of great things to share, from the moment it was conceived on a beermat, to the moment that is now – and beyond.

But let’s face it, running a business is in itself taxing enough. We rarely take pause to reflect on how far we’ve come – and even if we do, it’s but for a moment or two, at town hall meetings or preludes to Christmas parties.

So you leave all that value on the table, and try every single marketing method known to man, oblivious to the relationship-building potential of every thread of information you’ve learned, every product you’ve launched, and each and every experience your business and personal life has presented at your door.

Word And Mouth finds the value in your business and sets your story free to be shared and delivered in such a way that customers can’t resist passing it on.

It’s much more than communications.

The traditional marketing and communications companies will tell people, or give you sales ideas for, what you tell them.

That’s great if you want a one-off transaction with no longevity in the client relationship.

But imagine if you could build a relationship founded on trust, loyalty and engagement – on being fascinated and intrigued and involved with the brand, rather than merely sold to.

That’s the power of sharing everything. And Word And Mouth unleashes the content in you to make that possible.

For us it’s about discovery, recognising your innate talents and putting them on the world stage. We’re pretty good when it comes to communicating those strengths for you, but we’re also keen on the whole ‘teach a man to fish’ philosophy, too. Because the people who know best about your business, are invariably you and your team.

Word And Mouth builds better businesses. It’s all about the value in you, and creating a strategy founded on sharing the magic that is the DNA of your business, to create those meaningful customer relationships.

That’s the value in you – and a guide to what we do…

To do what you do, best, you need to ruthlessly concentrate on your passion, which is hopefully also your area of expertise.

Think customer

There’s an old saying that I literally just made up based on paraphrasing the words of a genius from way-back-somewhere:

When you line up the stars, the constellations smile down at you.

Understanding the value of sharing everything starts by channeling your efforts. Meticulous attention pays big rewards.

You simply cannot underestimate how when you spend hours a day evolving and mastering your cause, your value to your customer community rises exponentially.

In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours to get to enlightenment – but spend just one more hour on your passion and you’re one hour more expert than anyone else you know.

Share for the greatest chance to shine

Small businesses, in their being nimble and agile, have the greatest opportunity. Chances are the few employees you have (and should) possess wildly different personalities and skillsets.

There’s Cherry, who is obsessive about reading the latest news on your industry segment and takes notes at meetings. Bob loves writing a blog on your product category and you’ve given him free rein – within the realms of your company’s social posting guidelines – to scramble the Harrier jump jets of content and create a tremor of delight among your customers with the latest buzz from the industry (content curation) and news from your company (content creation).

Let your imagination run riot

Sharing isn’t just about content, though. Yesterday I learned from Springwise how Chicago-based insurance company State Farm was sharing its expertise not just online, but at its own Next Door cafe – helping to educate customers about all things financial over a frappacino.

A public space, with classes for those  yearning to learn more about managing money. A beautiful synergy and symbiotic with my vision to create uCafes – essentially seats of learning and sharing all over the world where tasty beverages and erudite smorgasbords of wisdom are dispensed for and by anyone and everyone.

The truth is this…

If you find what your customers want, and you know your business, then it shouldn’t be a troublesome bridge to put the two together with content that appeals, intrigues and excites.

Most of all, be yourself. Dan Zanzarella shows that when it comes to communications, it’s uniqueness that matters most. And there’s only one of you, which is a bit of a Brucie*!

Sharing everything should be part of your DNA. Let it happen, and let the magic begin…

23 points in Scrabble

2 words that define 2012 at Word And Mouth.

I want you to tell us what the two words are that embody your efforts this year.

And now let me explain the reasons behind mine.

• Simplify. If there’s one thing we don’t need, it’s noise. Noise ruins podcasts, and gets in the way of great content. Noise is what stops us in our tracks, for all the wrong reasons. Noise stops us getting our message across in the way it’s intended. And as we become increasingly time poor (who wouldn’t love a 21-hour working week?) the importance of efficiency and escapism grows. To consume our time, it better be downright essential. And while we look towards automation and AI for most of our machine-related needs (love that new washing machine you can control via a smartphone app), we’re also looking for quicker, smarter and faster from everything else we do that doesn’t involve indulgence. That’s why I’m focusing on making everything we offer here at Word And Mouth, simpler for you. You deserve it. You need it. And frankly, if we don’t, someone else will. Simplify and smileify are interchangeable.
• 

  What glue can do...

  Glue. Before, I thought podcasting was a panacea. Talk to your communities! Build networks! Find world peace! Yet it’s like a fork in a three-course meal. It’s one part a whole. Here at Word And Mouth we’re borderline nuts about sharing everything, leaving no stone unturned. That means using a load of different tools and methods to achieve a single objective. Making your business better. And 2012 is all about understanding those complicated ties between systems, tools and apps. That’s the glue. Because the sooner we can simplify it, the happier you will be.

Frankly nothing else matters.

Last year’s two were curate and community. They are the founding fathers of Word And Mouth. We relish, adore, and frame them, for ready reference as we progress through the years.

So come on then, thinking time over – what are your two?

The best things in life are uncovered. Everything else is just an encumbrance, defence mechanism from the cold notwithstanding.

One of the best books I ever read on the importance of blogging for business was called Naked Conversations, with Shel Israel and Robert Scoble. I still refer to it sometimes as despite it being quite long in the tooth now, it offers refreshing perspectives on accountability and transparency that are unmet in their quality by other titles and articles.

And I’m now imploring that you, as a business, go naked. Shed your inhibitions, strip out all the jargon and hard sell and instead focus on the purity of your brand – and write, talk and film like heck all about it.

What are the bare essentials?

One of the major concerns among my friends in business about sharing their all, is that it’s already been said before.

There might be billions of pages on the web, but when it comes to you, your business and your passion, there’s only one website that really matters. Yours.

Your story, your heritage, your product – they’re all interwoven in this rich tapestry that is your brand. There has never been, and there never will be, something of its like again.

And by reading this article you’ve demonstrated you have the prowess, the passion and the personality (the new Ps of marketing?!) to share your tale with the wider world.

Here’s another exclusive on those billions of web pages: Most are junk. And thankfully, people are not fools, and search engines are getting more clever, daily (though you can certainly help them out with tailored landing pages – but more on that another day).

Cold feet not allowed

Authenticity, transparency, personality – these are the three elements crucial to your business’ success. You’ve practiced them offline for years, and things should be no different if you want to capitalise on this bright, shiny internet thing.

That’s what I want from you. To just lay it on the line – be yourself. You don’t have to be the next J K Rowling, you just need to share your brand, your business, your vision, your passion – using whatever means necessary. Blogs, podcasts, videos, white papers, webinars – and whatever the next shiny thing is. Test, have fun, get feedback, rinse and repeat.

The full frontal on my plans

I have a bold and brave proposal to make to my clients. I have a shiver down my spine that there’s a rocky road ahead to have it approved. I mentioned in a previous post that historically I’ve faced challenges in getting staff en masse to pitch in and show their spurs online.

But this time’s going to be different. I need to swot up on getting buy-ins. From legal through HR on the social computing guidelines (unleashing employees to write content to support the site, in a nutshell). And working out all the many advantages of openness.

Consumers hostile to the concept of timeshare have pointed to transparency, or rather its lack, as the industry’s Achilles heel.

So what a refreshing change to be putting it out there, showing people exactly what this company does, what its people think, and where it’s headed.

And the greatest news of all is the pioneers have already laid the foundations to inspire us innovative business leaders to act and succeed by sharing and baring.

Channel 9 is our centrefold

Of all the corporate websites I’ve ever visited, it’s Microsoft’s Channel 9 that best embodies the spirit of authenticity, transparency and personality.

Channel 9 is a community. We bring forward the people behind our products and connect them with those who use them. We think there is a great future in software and we’re excited about it. We want the community to participate in the ongoing conversation. This is the heart of Channel 9. We talk about our work but listen to the customer. – Microsoft.

And the best thing is anyone can do it. Literally – anyone!

All it takes is passion and a devotion to your customer.

Success, uncovered

I hope this has motivated you to start talking to your customers, finding out who they are and what they want from you so you can curate and create the content they need to thrive. To start testing it, requesting feedback, being unstoppable.

And discovering the naked truth that sharing equals success.

Flagrant efforts to canvass sympathy and man flu now partially abated, I decided to take a stroll through the streets of Mancunian suburbs to fill the well of inspiration anew.

As you know 2012 is pretty much a year of experimentation and evolution for myself and Word And Mouth. The essentials have been bubbling under for a couple of years, scratching hard at the walls of my mind to be set free.

And you know what? I think they might finally be banished from the darkness and brought into the light!

See that title up there? That’s the five step process that we all, as business owners of 2012, need to follow. That is essentially your recipe for success.

Share isn’t in the middle for kicks and cuddles alone. It’s at the heart of every success-focused business.

I don’t particularly care whether you do your sharing on Facebook or Twitter. I’m not obsessed with creating a web radio show over bringing your message to life through video or even (ah, the nostalgia…) blogging.

What does fuel me, though, is you getting out there and proving you care. That you know your stuff. That together, you and your customers are destined for greater things.

It makes sense, doesn’t it?

Yet so many of us forget the basics. That back in the day, noone really spoke of word of mouth marketing because it was the accepted norm. Sure, mass media brought your Cokes and Unilevers brand awareness – but when it came to the SMBs and SMEs, customer evangelism was everything we had.

Then the internet came along and we threw away the playbook (if you’re a Blackberry product owner, you probably did it twice!).

Well, it’s time to hit the bin and salvage what’s left. To rebuild what we once new, and start over empowered with the best bits of tech and an opportunity to reach millions of new customers by impressing them with what you know, and your compassion to share.

That’s all I’m giving you right now.

I could go into the HOW, WHAT, WHY, WHERE and WHEN. But that’s for another day. This year is all about simplicity, as well as transparency and accountability and personality.

Let’s play the two-way thing and tell me what you think in the comments below.

Last year I was the first to admit that Word And Mouth wasn’t going anywhere.

As the guy responsible for making Word And Mouth work, I’d spent most of my time devoted to The Podcast Guy, showcasing the many benefits of web radio to a mostly uninterested audience.

I became so wrapped up in the magic of podcasting that I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. Despite the magnificent prose, the deft how-tos and the inspirational ideas people could plug into their podcasts, I was bewildered by the inertia of those who occasionally visited the site.

I now realise the error of my ways. Not only did I not

• treat The Podcast Guy as a business
• understand the podcasting was just one slice of the content pie

I also completely ignored the fundamental elements of what makes a website compelling, engaging and repeat-visitable.

Forgive me the ‘doesn’t actually exist as a word’-ness of that last element: It would surely be worse if I hadn’t recognised that fact, right?!

Almost 18 months ago I’d coined the idea of the 3d blogger – one that yields maximum advantage from their passion by expressing it in text, audio and video.

The Podcast Guy could never really exist as a rock-solid business service provider because podcasting is one side of a three-sided coin. You have to convey your message in whichever way your community needs and wants to receive it – and as some like to read, others love to listen, and yet more enjoy consuming moving pictures.

It was late December, during my hibernate-cum-create month, when I got a call from a client asking for a revamp of a website that I’d created for them nearly two years earlier. I’d been badgering them to evolve the site, with or without my assistance, for some weeks and evidently I’d either worn their defences down, or inspired them.

The opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time.

I’ve never been more fortified by the capability of content to move and captivate people. The fact there’s more information out there than ever before is, to me, a benefit to the chief content officer.

But more about that, and the absolute power of curation, later.

First things first. That site.

Until today, that website has been primarily involved in supplying news to and about the shared holiday ownership industry. We’re talking timeshare and fractional ownership, of huge organisations such as Hilton and Holiday Inn.

But this site hasn’t yielded the true power of the situation. Behind it all is a company called RCI, which possesses some of the brightest minds in hospitality. The vast majority of other visionaries in this sector belong to Wyndham Worldwide, which also happens to be the parent company of RCI.

Are you seeing the sheer potential of this website?

I’m writing this kicking myself that we haven’t unleashed the genius of that incredible knowledge pool, yet. If you’ve ever tried rubbing your belly and patting your head simultaneously, and multiply that by me being an under-capable multitasker (synonym for man), you’ll understand what a herculean task I’m undertaking momentarily.

The shared holiday ownership industry offers huge opportunities to the hotel, whole ownership and investor communities, for many different reasons, respectively. It is our job to support the business development teams by providing exactly the information and response that their clients and contacts need to make the right decision and enter that industry.

That, my fine friends, is the story so far. It’s but January 4. The night is but young, and the music may take a different course. But right now I’m ready to dance.

Why are you here?

By year’s end I’m striving to have created a website that wins awards not only for that peerless content, but equally for a user interface that is both effective and simplicity itself.

I’m not in this for design kudos. I don’t yet have so much as a GCSE in Art. But at Word And Mouth I’m about learning the ropes, and this year will be all about that.

I want to talk to the brightest minds, be inspired by some of the world’s most usable and engaging websites, and start getting together the essential guide to creating the kind of websites that customers crave in 2013 – because I don’t believe this masterclass will be done until the end of this year.

It’s an experiment, a voyage into the unknown, and I want you here with me. You’re an essential part of the experience, and all your comments are richly sought.

Tell me the sites you love and linger upon, and why they leave you spellbound. Share with us your ‘wow’ moments on the web.

And let’s make 2012 the year we all start creating websites that rock this planet. Anything is possible.

It’s not ‘I can’t’. It’s ‘can’t I?’…