Summary : Word Of Mouth Marketing – Andy Sernovitz

Integrate tell-a-friend forms right into your Web site– and then get your site to send you a report each time the form is used. Look at the topics being discussed for clues on what is a hot topic at the present time.
Encourage everyone to get out there– especially your senior management team. If your CEO has his or her own blog, that sends a good signal to everyone else they should follow suit. If the site then has plenty of people from inside your company responding to genuine requests from outside the company, you’ll have a very robust way to talk with your customers rather than merely pushing advertising at them.

Put all your information in an e-mail– so people can easily forward it on to others. Sometimes you can get people to forward an e-mail by inviting them to do so while at other times if you add a warning “PRIVATE: DO NOT FORWARD” this will almost guarantee they send it on to all their friends.
Add a tell-a-friend link to every page on your corporate Web site– so you make it very easy and painless for word of mouth to happen. You can even allow them to add in a personal message if they want but this isn’t absolutely essential. This is how a site like YouTube became so big so quickly. It was super-simple for one user to be able to spread the word to their friends.
Try and multiply the sharing– by offering two-for-the-price-of-one deals. This gets more people involved in spreading the word. Make it easy for people to involve their friends.
Give people interesting stuff to share with their friends– whether this is electronic stuff ready to cut and paste, handouts in shopping bags, coupons for more great deals in shipped packages, etc. Make it easy for people to refer their friends and they often will.
Set up some blogs– where customers can say whatever they want. Provide a forum where great raves can be made available. Resist the urge to censor because negative comments provide authenticity and credibility. Just respond to each negative comment as best you can, and people will respect that.
Create your own message board on your corporate Web site– where people can come to swap stories and generally discuss what’s going on. A message board generates a community of like-minded people. It also creates an archive of feedback which can be very useful for future word of mouth initiatives.
Use exclusivity, secrets and surprises to good effect– because these are all powerful word of mouth tools and techniques. Create a VIP club who receive privileges not available to the general public. Make inclusion in this

Five T’s of great word of mouth marketing:
T-1 – Talkers – find people who like to talk
T-2 – Topics – give them something to discuss
T-3 – Tools – help the message travel farther
T-4 – Taking part – join the ongoing conversation
T-5 – Tracking – study what people are saying