By Laura Morris
Want your brand to “go viral?” Get in line. With marketers lining up to create the next “Subservient Chicken,” it’s becoming increasingly difficult to create attention-grabbing content that will get your target customers talking.
The smartest brands are taking a more scientific approach, thinking deliberately about how they can engineer a social experience that sparks positive word-of-mouth. Here’s how Purina thinks about using social media to spark advocacy.
Purina’s Three Step Process for Driving Word of Mouth
Step #1: Identify the core attributes of influentials in your target market.
Successful word-of-mouth revolves around a relatively small set of core influencers that wield a disproportionate amount of influence in a target market. Influencers possess three key qualities:
- Knowledge: They are objective holders of well-informed opinions.
- Reach: They are connected to a broad network within your target market.
- Passion: They enthusiastically engage with the products & services.
Step #2: Screen your customer network to identify influencers.
After you understand what your influentials look like, you can then use network mapping to screen for those traits. Purina starts by identifying a core set of target consumers and then, through interviews, maps not only their direct networks, but also each of their contacts’ networks, to create a visual depiction of customer relationships. That network map allows Purina to efficiently identify the most influential individuals within their target market.
Step #3: Tailor and target communications to this set of influentials.
To embed itself in key influencers’ natural conversations, Purina tailors its communications to closely align with influencers’ needs and preferences (ex: preferred communications channel; type of information most requested). Catering to influentials’ information needs lets Purina multiply the impact of its message.
Want to learn more about how the smartest brands are using social media? MLC Members, join us on April 13th for our “Profiles in Social Media Success” teleconference to hear how companies like Purina, Intuit, Texas Instruments, and LEGO are using social media to drive results for their business.
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on 23 April 10
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[...] True to my CEC Insider bio, I enjoy Saturday Soul Searching Strolls. Last weekend, I went on a particularly long walk to clear my mind of all things related to Influencing Stakeholders in a Networked Environment (the major CEC study that’s frying my brain). Oh-ho-ho, what a naïve analyst I am! Two experiences along the way ignited thoughts about my piece of the study puzzle: animating stakeholder networks to speak on the company’s behalf. In marketing terms, word of mouth. [...]