In these times of crisis, it's more important than ever to maximize effectiveness and focus only on that which truly offers the best price/performance ratio.
In terms of marketing communications, this could mean for example focusing primarily on part of its target group, the so-called influencers.

We can divide influencers into several categories.

1. Statutory authorities – These people are linked by the fact that most are among the so-called decision-makers. They may be company directors, managers of individual company branches, but also office managers or politicians
2. Experts – ex. developers, designers, film critics, doctors, etc.
3. Media elite – ex. journalists, commentators, moderators, etc.
4. Cultural and social elite – ex. celebrities, artists, musicians, designers, etc.
5. Connectors – people, customers

Advertising and marketing have already more or less successfully learned to work with the first four categories, but they are just starting to discover that fifth group, despite its high influence on a company’s sales success.

So who then are the influencers-connectors?
These are people who by their influence may draw those around them towards your brand or, quite to the contrary, steer them right away from it. These people represent the value of several “ordinary mortals”. They are distinguished by several factors:

• they have more social links, and communication between them is bi-directional, meaning that the surroundings reciprocate their contact
• they tend to be extroverts and have a greater tendency to speak out about their experiences, and to thus spread either positive or negative WOM
• thanks to their interest in the given area and their personality, they hold the clout necessary for influencing the purchasing behavior of their surrounds

Rule of 10 %.
Foreign research has shown that around 10% of the people we’re surrounded by are influencers. This does not mean that there are only 10% of people in the entire population holding a monopoly over wisdom, and who direct the behavior of the other 90%. It is rather the rule that in each segment in which you as marketers are interested, influencers always represent a different 10% of the target group. This means that somebody will be an influencer in the area of cars, and people will go and see him/her when ready to buy a new one, whereas another person will be a mover of new computer purchasers. But it still remains true that it must be a person with wide social surroundings, and must be perceived as a person of prominence.

The most frequent form of work with this group is a “long-term influencer program” with the aim of building a base of ambassadors spreading positive word of mouth amongst the remaining 90% of the target group.

The main condition of working with this highly influential group is to avoid unidirectional “pushy” communication, but rather to start up a dialogue. Another condition is sincerity and transparency.
Thus the keystone of influencer marketing is providing thanks from the brand and drawing them into the brand. Be careful not to confuse this with “loyalty programs” like “buy, collect points and you’ll receive something nice”. It is neither thanking nor drawing, but purely pragmatic “bribery”.

If you really want to use the capabilities of influencers, you can’t buy them; you have to sincerely win their hearts. Their main motivation for spreading positive WOM about the brand won’t be that they’re doing it for the brand, but that they’re improving their friends’ lives and providing them with interesting experiences.

Thank them only when they help other users, perhaps in the form of a reward, but beware. This should never be money or large gifts, because you’d run the risk of turning your ambassadors into paid agents who stop spreading positive WOM the moment they don’t receive such reward. They also lose their credibility in their environment, because their motivation is seen as purely selfish.

Actively engage them in you activities. Desire feedback on your product – new, old, innovated - and on prepared activities. Don’t fear negative feedback and reactions. Your sincere interest in even negative experiences increases customers’ feelings of solidarity with your brand, enhances their feeling that they are important to the company, and thus makes them even bigger ambassadors than before. But they must receive feedback on their feedback.

But a long-term influencer program is not the only way of working with influencers. You can also use the strength of influencers for one-off situations.

Do you have a new product and need for the target group to try it out and become convinced of its qualities? Try for a change instead of an anonymous sampling of 90% of the target group to do target product seeding amongst the influential tenth – the influencers.

If we wanted to exaggerate a bit, we’d say that amongst marketers, it looks like something out of Star Wars, but where they wish each other “May the online be with you.” Nobody underestimates the importance of the online environment today. Let’s look for example at such events as the death of Michael Jackson, or the French airbus crashing into the Atlantic. In the latter case, the social-networking channels became the fastest source of information about the fact that something’s gone wrong, whereas in the former case, the entire Internet transformed into one big wailing wall over the loss of the (former) king of pop.

People’s average minutes “tangled up” in the web online are growing and growing. The average Czech user then spends 31 hours, 55 minutes and 27 seconds on the Internet each month (source: data from January 2009, Mediaresearch). The average Czech time on-line has grown by five hours over last year, so it looks like we still have something to look forward to. In campaigns abroad, the trend is to engage community-social-networking websites (Facebook, Twitter) or blogospheres. We’re actively feeling our way around this space here in the CR, but for example, Twitter is still flying right by us. How are social networks interesting for marketers?

In part it is because “it’s simply working” and it would be silly to miss out, and in part a because of one simple fact – we’re dealing with people. Webblogs, Facebook profiles and Twitter messages are personal, so their readers relate to them easier than to a unified page of some comfy slipper manufacturer from Upper Downlandia. Which information has greater value for you, and is cooler? When you read on that company website that “these slippers really are the best”, or when you check out your buddy’s profile and his/her latest messages says “I bought these comfy slippers and man, they really are the best”?

Marketers see great strength in just these on-line reviews and product evaluations from its satisfied users. It makes sense, the Internet is a well of knowledge, into which every dips their bucket when they have the slightest hesitation about something. And when you hesitate plenty in a number of categories when buying something, why not seek out advice? Where’s the problem? Already in our WOMonitor, which mapped Word of Mouth on the Czech market in 2007, we confirmed that personal recommendations given face to face influence us the most when deciding whether to make the purchase. And the best ones are from our family, relatives and friends. In the WOMonitor, 80% of Czechs attributed influence to their friends, and 73% to family members.

The American consultation company Rubicon performed research among American Internet users over the age of 13, where personal recommendation blew away the world of Internet commentaries, printed media or reviews on specialized websites. “It’s interesting to find that as much time as we spend online, we still prefer a personal recommendation from someone we know and trust. Young adults are somewhat more likely to turn to the internet for advice and referrals, but even they listen to their peers first,” says Chris Haack, senior analyst of the company Mintel, drawing from the research by Rubicon.

How does your brand do in the social surroundings of your customers? Have you ever tried to find out?

The saying “every cloud has a silver lining”, works the other way too. Every good or popular thing sooner or later runs into some beady-eyed weasel, who misuses it for personal gain. The onset of Word of Mouth marketing brought with it certain crooked, unethical campaigns. What is ethical and what isn’t?

The WOMMA Ethics Code of Conduct speaks clearly about what is and isn’t propaganda, and what can and cannot be. It defines the fundamental ethical principles of Word of Mouth – transparency, sincerity, veracity and protection of privacy. WOMMA also clearly defines unethical techniques that are incompatible with Word of Mouth:

stealth marketing – commercial communication under a false non-commercial identity
shilling – paying people to speak about your brand
infiltration – false identity manipulating online or offline conversations
comment spam – automated or false commentary in online discussions
defacement – damage of property for the purpose of promotion
falsification – spreading false or misleading information
fake blogging – commercial blogs masked by civilian identities

Examples that speak for all:

Pay per tweet is a service that reeks of shilling, introduced by the server ProBlogger. For each mentioning of a product of brand that you launch in the air through Twitter, you’ll get paid. This sounds like a prescription for sincerity in pill form. Call it support for Word of Mouth? You can make up your own minds.

Jim and Laura have become immortal in the history of fake blogging for Wal-Mart. Wal-Marting Across America. Two ordinary people in a caravan (RV) head across America from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart, writing on their blog about meeting with people who love Wal-Mart. The fulfilled erotic dream of the Wal-Mart brand manager was unfortunately fully sponsored and directed by the PR agency Edelman, and gave birth to a number of blogo-lies-to-your-face that were all carefully scripted. Boo!

The Target corporation achieved three encroachments on ethics for the price of one. Target Rounders are students who gain points for promoting products of the retail chain Target. Openly. Then however they were instructed apparently by infants to keep their affiliation with the Rounders “a secret” on Facebook. (encroachment no. 1). Rosie, a PR student involved in the program claimed it to be unethical on the Facebook group Rounders. Before her contribution was deleted by administration (encroachment 2), an employee of the agency asked her for details, without claiming with whom he was affiliated (encroachment 3).

Some marketers understand Word of Mouth as advertising with greater potential to invade one’s privacy. But Word of Mouth cannot be falsified or bribed, eradicate or “prevented from happening”. Word of Mouth is just here. Period. It’s up to every brand to decide to support, strengthen and facilitate it, or to manipulate and/or falsify it. But the second path has such short legs…

Have you tested your campaign out with the help of “20 questions?”