Are you Googley? No matter what area of business you are in, being Googley can help differentiate you from your competitors, at least according to “What Would Google Do?” by Jeff Jarvis.

In the book, Jarvis examines how Google operates and its core values: creation, openness, connections, uniqueness, collaboration, invention and keeping it simple. In previous podcasts I talked about Googlefying your business – that series was more focused on utilizing the many platforms Google has created to help you operate more effectively and efficiently in many ways. But by becoming what Jarvis called “Googley” a company is in essence taking the core values that Google has employed to better serve their clients. Whether or not you like Google (good reads: “Google Whacked” and “When Google Owns You”) some of the core values Jarvis outlines in his book should be fundamental in any business.

Fundamental values:

• Listen and monitor – What are customers saying about you and your competition? Where are they saying it?
• Collaborate and link – What do you do best? Focus on that and refine it. Make quality the one thing you do then collaborate and link with others who have different specializations. Linking to other bloggers helps you get found and increases your Google (or Bing) juice.
• Join and distribute – Your audience will likely not come to you, so go to them. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube…if this is where they spend their time, it’s also where you need to spend yours. Engage, interact and find out what they want. Think about how you can utilize these platforms, like Foursquare, in a different way beyond a special deal for the “mayor.” If you are a restaurant owner or chef, is there room for collaboration with other restaurants to develop a Foursquare-specific deal?
• Innovate – As Jarvis points out in his book, Google employs a 20 percent rule in which technical employees are encouraged to use 20 percent of their time innovating and working on new ideas, products and businesses. It has spawned many of the new ideas and features that come out of Google. Jarvis recommends spending time each week researching, learning, experimenting and inventing.

Get out there and join your audience, the conversation could be taking place without you. Create, and make it easy for your customers to share you or your product with their friends online. Remember, contributing, creating and linking will make you more searchable. Lastly, innovate! It will likely be one of the most liberating things you do in business.

Resources:
1. “Five steps to a Googlier you”
2. “What Would Google Do?”

Question of the week:
Do you implement the 20 percent rule? If so, has it spawned any great ideas that you’ve tested?

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Word of mouth marketing (WOMM) has been regarded as an important piece of the marketing puzzle, and increasingly is proving an essential component to any communications or marketing strategy. But what exactly is it and how can organizations effectively implement it?

Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing, defines it as, “Word of mouth marketing is two things: it’s giving people a reason to talk about your stuff and making it easier for the conversation to take place.”

The reason could be a great feature or service or an amazing experience, the buzz worthy moment. Making it easier includes the logistical components – the programs or support you provide to help the conversation spread farther and faster. This can be through forums, brand ambassadors, emails, etc.

Social media is now a component of word of mouth marketing, but online has always been a big part of it – think email marketing and the ability to forward that email onto someone else.

But is word of mouth suitable for every company? Can a sock manufacturer have just as much success as Apple for instance?

“My favorite word of mouth examples are all for really boring stuff,” Sernovitz said. “Fiskar scissors has this giant fan club called the Fiskarteers and it’s all of these scrap bookers who meet up several times a year, they have an online community and they have blogs and incredible enthusiasm. Duck brand duct tape sponsors an annual ‘make a prom dress out of duct tape’ competition.”

To effectively use word of mouth there are a few things to keep in mind:
1.    Be interesting
2.    Make it easy
3.    Make people happy
4.    Earn trust and respect.

Sernovitz also suggests using the “5 T’s”: talkers, topics, tools, taking part, and tracking and measuring.

“The most important thing is called the five T’s and if you start to think about those, it’s how you build a campaign,” Sernovitz said.

“It doesn’t start with tools,” he said. “It doesn’t start with, ‘what are we going to do on Twitter?’ It starts with ‘who’s going to talk about us?’ The talkers. ‘What are they going to say?’ Then if Twitter is the place we should be sharing, then Twitter is the place we should be sharing it.”

Are you using word of mouth strategies? If so, what has and had not worked? Or has a company ever compelled you enough to use word of mouth? What did they do?

**Andy Sernovitz will send a signed copy of his book, “Word of Mouth Marketing” to the best two comments – so comment away!

For the audio interview click the play button below, and for the video podcast visit JetPack Radio.

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Do you give people a reason to talk about your you or your organization? This is one of the most fundamental and critical components of any word of mouth marketing (WOMM) campaign. It is the shareable topic you provide people, and it can be as simple as a clever name for a menu item, good customer service, a small take-away item for customers or secret sale.

Owner and Executive Chef at LGO Hospitality, Bob Lynn, who operates several restaurants throughout Arizona and California including La Grande Orange, Chelsea’s Kitchen, and Radio Milano, has focused on integrating this imperative WOMM element into almost every aspect of his business.

“We try to do a lot of things, like giving away cookies at the door,” Lynn said. “It’s funny how people pick up on things – the littlest details. Particularly at LGO, it’s about the details.”

Halloween cookies given to diners at La Grande Orange

He said at each restaurant it’s all about the details in everything from the “live,” fresh food to the hand-selected and mixed music, and even the sound system.

“Every part of the business is all hand selected,” he said. “Those are things we don’t promote, but can see it creates an insider loyalty. We feel like we build our business on our repeat business. All of those details add up to people.”

At La Grande Orange they started to notice repeat diners would bring in friends or family members and point out the cookies as they were getting up from their tables to exit.

“Some details mean more to others,” Lynn said. “We believe in focusing on all of them. It’s a big part of our core. It takes more effort. It’s not as predictable and I think people feel that extra effort.”

Another example is the slips of paper Postino provides on the tables for gum chewers – a small gesture with a big impact for those who don’t have a place to put their gum.

Gum wrapper at Postino

Promotion on the back side

Other businesses have caught on as well. Pure Sushi South in Scottsdale built a cell phone booth so diners could take their calls in privacy. Toyota appealed to pet owners with a full line of aftermarket pet products for its Venza. And at Noca in Phoenix it’s not uncommon to receive an amuse bouche, a table-side visit from the owner, and a giant bowl of cotton candy after dinner.

What can you do today to get people talking? Maybe it’s offering hand sanitizers for diners in your restaurant (those concerned about the swine flu will appreciate it), or going the extra mile when it comes to customer service – be that cable company, that instead of making customers wait out a five-hour window, you specify a time and show up at that time. Or simply start with hand-written thank you notes to your clients.

For the audio interview click the play button below, and for the video podcast visit JetPack Radio.

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