To be more specific, any word of mouth program – short-term or long-term – that I’ve had the opportunity to work on that was a success all started with one thing in common: they saw the brand, the product or the service as an enabler for their customers. A conduit, if you will, between a customer and what that customer is passionate about. Mind you, passion comes in many shapes and sizes. Sure, it can be about exploring the world or sailing the open seas. But passion can also come in the form of helping others. Putting good food on the table for your family. Creating and capturing memories. Exercising. Or yes, even cleaning the garage. You’d be amazing what people get excited about. It’s not just the sexy things.

When we reframe the conversation, we force ourselves to view the selling process differently. We no longer are begging the customer to buy and focusing all of the attention on us, but instead we are focusing the attention on them and what they love. Simple in theory, but to stay true to that concept in execution isn’t always easy.

So as you build that next campaign, think about how you can connect people to what they love most in the world. How can your brand be that thing that helps them love what they love even more? Because when you do, word of mouth ensues. And it doesn’t get any better than that.

It has to do with companies and causes.

There are, of course, many variations of this conversation. One of them is brand as cause, like Love146 or the World Wildlife Fund. In other words, they are brands that exist wholly around the cause that they stand for. Then there are the ones that have a product, but stand for that one north star. Take Patagonia, for example, which is committed to helping the planet and makes sure everything they make and do supports that cause. Check out their Common Threads and 1% for the Planet programs, just to name a few (or the fact that after two or three times that they sent me a catalog and I didn’t order anything, they asked if they could take me off their mailing list to save paper). Or even Toms, a company that donates one pair of shoes to those in need for every one they sell.

And then there is, well, everyone else. And this is where the conversations I heard land. These people were saying that if your brand doesn’t stand for something – a cause, if you will – then people won’t care about it. And I absolutely agree. Where I absolutely disagree, however, is that your brand needs to align itself with something like saving the planet or curing cancer in order for people to care about you.

Let’s go ahead and get it out of the way: I’m not saying that’s a bad thing or even an ineffective thing. But experience has taught me that a brand can stand on its own as a cause, you just sometimes (okay, a lot of times) have to get your hands dirty to find it. And instead of having some arbitrary cause that sounds good, why not find the one that matters to your customers? For a crafting company, we found that their cause was to create a place that was safe online to share and celebrate each other’s work instead of the hostile communities that plagued the online space. For a city park client, it wasn’t planting trees and picking up trash. Their cause was celebrating the memories you make in a park with your family, your partner, etc. For a musical instruments initiative, it wasn’t about selling guitars and drum kits while looking for the next American Idol, but unlocking the music inside us all – no matter your skill level.

As an old colleague used to say, brands exist for two reasons: Solve my problem. And make me feel good. It’s no secret that people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. But instead of looking outward for that cause, maybe you should look inward. Because when you find that thing to fight for, you a one step closer to putting a stake in the ground and defining who and what you are as a brand. And giving your customers something to fight far makes it even better.

Here’s the thing about creating relationships with influencers – or with any customers for that matter: BOTH sides have to want the relationship. That’s just the way any healthy relationship works.

But we live in a day and age where the “professional influencers” are being chased by the love-sick brands like the middle-high school geek desperately wanting to be noticed by the most popular girl in the class (not that I know anything about that). No matter how much he dreams about it, plots about it, creates opportunities for it to happen or downright wants it, she has to want it too. Because one person wanting a relationship does not a relationship make.

And therein lies the rub with social. We see study after study that proves most people don’t want to have a deep, meaningful relationship with a brand. They want a discount. They want a freebie. They want. And they want more. It’s all take and no give. And then on this side, you have a mountain of brands pushing out marketing messages hoping to get a bite on a sale. Again, it’s all take and no give. Not exactly a healthy relationship, is it?

Now I don’t want to lead to you to believe that this is always the case. There are those loyal, passionate folks that DO want to have a deep, meaningful, long-lasting relationship with a brand. They want to learn all about them. To know their hopes and dreams. To know what ails them (and try and help fix it). And, of course, that will stand up for them no matter what. These are those rare advocates. And because they are rare, they need to be treated as such – but that’s another post for another time.

My point is this: let’s define the relationship first. There’s already so much clutter in the social media space now, do you really want to push out more of it to an audience who could are less? Look, DTR talks are hard. But the great thing is that at the end of it, you at least know where you stand, and the hard part is over.

Now the real work begins.

Let me take a quick moment to remind you, as I wrote three years ago, that frequency doesn’t necessarily equal loyalty. Take that gas station on the way to work. You go there frequently because it’s convenient and on your route – but are you loyal to that gas station? I doubt it.

But I digress.

By the current state of thinking, brands are asking you to be loyal to them. They are asking you to join their program or carry their card. They, in essence, are asking you to buy more and buy more often. Sure, you can earn points or miles or free meals, etc., but in a lot of instances, it’s a game.

But what if we changed how we think about loyalty? What if we turned the tables? What if a brand had to join your loyalty program? So instead of pledging your loyalty to them, they pledged their loyalty to you? So American Airlines could join Spike’s loyalty program. Or Starwood. You get the idea.

So often we ask customers to put skin in the game and do things for us. Maybe it’s time brands did as well?

Just food for thought.

I’m talking about the kids over at Fizz and their work with the American Dairy Association of Ohio.

You can read the full, award-winning case study here, but let me give you a recap.

Challenge: Milk sales in Ohio were slumping (just like the rest of the country). If fact, consumption had dropped over 50% since the 70s.

The Legwork: Fizz dug into the ethnographic research and found that 65% of Ohioans live in cities under 50,000 people and 22% live in towns under 10,000. In other words, just like we learned with the teen anti-smoking movement in South Carolina, if you want to reach the majority of people in a rural state, you have to take the message to them.

The next big thing they discovered is that there is a solid case to be made for chocolate milk as a sports recovery drink. Seriously, look it up. “Researchers and nutritionists at Indiana found that chocolate milk, the drink of little kids, was the perfect beverage to drink after strenuous activity. It was, in reality, a better for you, high tech sports drink.”

But the big A-HA moment came when Fizz was identifying their influencers for this campaign. Did they go to food bloggers? No. Health and wellness bloggers? Sports bloggers with big Twitter followings? Nope. In fact, they didn’t use online influencers at all. So think to yourself, who, in rural towns across Ohio, would be the go-to person(s) when it comes to sports, nutrition and performance – all wrapped up in respect and a source of authority?

High school football coaches.

Smart, right?

Think about it. Football is huge in small-town Ohio. It’s an honor and privilege to be on the team. So if you’re on the team, your coach’s word is law. And also if you’re on the team, you’re more than likely a popular kid in the school – so you have people watching and looking up to you. Coach says drink chocolate milk because it’s good for recovery, you drink it. Others ask you why and then they drink it, too. This has a huge trickle-down word of mouth effect.

Results: Straight from the case study:

Kroger’s chocolate milk sales in the Cincinnati region increased an incredible 475%. That is a Kroger system-wide record for increase in milk sales;Kroger management could not believe so much milk was being sold. In markets across Ohio, milk consumption increased 12-28% YTD as verified by IRI Scandata. This was 10 times the rate of the rest of the country. The sales rise was so dramatic that concerned convenience store owners even contacted the agency staff about chocolate milk’s possible illicit use because of the unprecedented sales to teenage boys (remember “Whipits?”).

There is a lot more to the WOMMY-winning case study that you’ll find interesting, so be sure to head over to the Fizz site and take a look.

The biggest take-away for me is this: Influence comes in all shapes and sizes. And it takes carefully planned, insightful digging to find out where your story is going to resonate. The days of making a list of influential bloggers and then pitching them are waning. Because the very definition of online influence is changing on a daily basis. It’s a moving target. And if it’s where you put all your hope (and money), you’re bound to fail. The social media marketing world is falling into a Facebook, Twitter and blog rut. As John Bell said at the recent WOMMA conference: “It’s our job to build belief in the fundamentals.” How true. When we forget the basics, we will fail. When we forget that 90% of word of mouth happens offline, we will fail. But when we combine online and offline in meaningful ways, it opens up a whole world of opportunity. Easier said than done? Of course. Impossible? Not on your life.

I’ve always held to the belief that when we surprise and delight a person or group, we have to do it selflessly. That is, we have to do it with the expectation that we (as a brand) will get nothing in return. The thing is, when you go into it expecting NOTHING is typically when you see the biggest payoff. When you go into it expecting a big return then you are building that into the stunt in the first place, which the typical consumer can smell a mile away.

Surprise and delights are just that – surprising and delighting. They get shared. They get talked about. They are very WOM-worthy. As talked about in the Brains on Fire book (shameless plug) and my former colleague Greg Cordell used to say, “Be famous for the people who love you, for the way you love them.” Or another way to think about it is to become “Fans of your fans.”

I recently stumbled onto what I think is a good start for a surprise and delight campaign with “Honda Loves You Back.” Simply, they saw that a band recorded all of their videos in their Hondas, so they set out to do “everything we can to make them famous.” Here’s the story:

And then, of course, those kids at Coke and their never-ending stream of Happiness. I never get tired of these videos.

Sure, not all of us have the revenue or time to have big Surprise and Delight campaigns. But sometimes the smallest things mean the most. Like picking up the phone and thanking a customer for being a customer. Or sending them to a secret website to pick out a t-shirt for free (and hey, maybe that shirt doesn’t even have your logo on it!) The point is, we’re all capable or it. Surprise and delights put the human factor into all this marketing. And we all know we could use a lot more of that.

Feel free to share a surprise and delight that’s happened to you or one that you’ve heard of. I’m always curious.

This is nothing new. In fact, the amount of noise that complainers make is getting louder and louder. To be clear, I know there are MANY legitimate things that we can complain about. But because we live in the age where anyone with an Internet connection “has a voice,” we’ve become used to reading our “friends” posts about delayed flights. Bad drivers. How their coffee is too hot. Even complaining about all the complaining (guilty). I’m sure the human behavior scientists are having a field day with all the data they’re collecting when it comes to wanting to be heard and ego and on and on. After all, studies show that the number one reason people post things on social media is for ego-driven purposes.

But no, this post isn’t going to be about how bad customer service stories get shared more than good ones. And it especially isn’t going to be about how to turn detractors into advocates.

Instead, I want to talk about telling your customers (or A customer) to go screw themselves. First of all, this is not a luxury all brands can afford. In fact, it’s one that very few can pull off. The example that comes to mind is the Alamo Drafthouse (from about a year ago). If you haven’t been or don’t know, the Alamo is a movie theater that serves you food and drinks during a show. They also have quirky film screenings with themes like quote-alongs, sing-alongs, shooting cap guns during action movies, etc. But what I REALLY love about the Alamo is how, before every movie, they explicitly warn you that if you talk or are on your phone during a movie, you get one warning and then you’ll be escorted out of the building (“we’ll kick your ass out” is how they so delicately put it). Because, as they say, they don’t mean to rude, but if you’re gonna be, then so will they.

If you’re not familiar with the story, an intoxicated young lady got kicked out of a movie for being loud. She called and left a message voicing her disgust that she couldn’t believe such a thing would happen. That they ripped her off. That this is America, for cryin’ out loud. But did the Alamo apologize and invite her to come back for a free movie? No. Instead, they made an example out of her and turned her voice mail into a commercial.

It went like this:

1)    Brand has policy.
2)    Brand highlights policy outlining rules and consequences when you break the rules.
3)    Customer breaks rules.
4)    Brand gives customer the finger.

Like I said, not all brands have this luxury. But because the Alamo stood up for what they believe in and pushed back on a whiny customer, it not only endeared its current customers to love them even more, but they won new awareness and probably customers because of it.

Holy moly, this makes me giggle like a little schoolgirl. We live in a world of contingency documents and crisis planning. We prepare for the worst-case scenario. We cringe at the stories of vigilante customers and fear the almighty social media influencers.  Brands spend half their time trying to figure out how to engage with their customers and the other half preparing for the backlash of engaging with their customers.

Again, allow me to reiterate. AT&T can’t do this. Ford can’t do this. American Airlines can’t do this. But when it comes to niche brands with deeply loyal followings, there’s an opening. No, you shouldn’t be looking for opportunities on how you can tell your customers to go fly a kite. But if you have a set of simple, ironclad rules that come with your brand and someone breaks them, then a whole new set of opportunities opens up.UPDATE: Since penning this post yesterday, I was reminded of this tried and true story about Southwest Airlines from the book “Nuts.”

Jim Ruppel, director of customer relations, and Sherry Phelps, director of corporate employment, tell the story of a woman who frequently flew on Southwest, but was disappointed with every aspect of the company’s operation. In fact, she became known as the “Pen Pal” because after every flight she wrote in with a complaint. She didn’t like the fact that the company didn’t assign seats; she didn’t like the absence of a first-class section; she didn’t like not having a meal in flight; she didn’t like Southwest’s boarding procedure; she didn’t like the flight attendants’ sporty uniforms and the casual atmosphere. And she hated peanuts! Her last letter, reciting a litany of complaints, momentarily stumped Southwest’s customer relations people. Phelps explains: “Southwest prides itself on answering every letter that comes to the company and several employees tried to respond to this customer, patiently explaining why we do things the way we do them. [Our response] was quickly becoming a [large] volume until they bumped it up to Herb’s desk, with a note: ‘This one’s yours.’ In sixty seconds, Kelleher wrote back and said, ‘Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.’

Personally, I love hearing stories of brands fighting back. When it’s done “on brand” and is legitimate, it can go a long way. And who knows? Maybe one-day things will even out and the cry-babies will think twice before they post that negative comment about the tiniest thing.

We can dream, can’t we?

But at the risk of having the social media kids come out of the woodwork, let me tell you something: Likes matter.

Back off a second and allow me to explain, will ya? You can’t tell me that you haven’t looked at a client’s or potential client’s or even a competitor’s Facebook page and said to yourself, “Hmmmm, they only have XX likes? That sucks.” You can’t tell me that the Chevy Camaro people don’t want more likes than the Ford Mustang people. Or that AT&T wants more likes than Verizon. Or that at least one metric of that project you did for your client isn’t the number of “likes” you garnered.

Let’s face it: People “like” your page if you have led them there because of a promotion. Or because they’ve been a loyal, lifetime customer. Or simply because you’re a beloved brand. Or because you’re “cool” and people want to be associated with you. Just like the people who have huge numbers of followers on Twitter tell you that the number of followers don’t matter, the same goes for Facebook. But it’s a lie. They do matter. Because it’s a measurement of visits and eyeballs. Yes, research shows that on average, only 1% of people who “like” a page interact with that brand on a regular basis on FB. I hear you. I feel your disappointment.

Instead, let’s start thinking about the “like” as either the beginning of a journey for some, or a point in time of a journey for others. What comes before? What comes after? How does that online action lead to offline word of mouth? There are many other variables, but a “like” is one of them.

In other words, “likes” matter. But so do a lot of other things in the mix. So before you go off on another rant about 1% engagement rates and the ROI of someone clicking that “like” button, think about how “likes” are table stakes now. They are expected. They are a part of what not only we are judged on, but what our client is judged on as well. Let me reiterate: it’s not the ONLY thing, or even a really IMPORTANT thing, but it’s a thing. So deal with it.

How many times have you heard the digital kids in your agency whine and moan about how the traditional PR/communications people “just don’t get” social. That they think it’s some plug-in tactics after everything is figured out. How the program would be so much better if social media had a seat at the table from the beginning. You know, when everything’s integrated.

But what I’ve found is that as much as that may be true, many of the social kids don’t really understand what “traditional” PR/communications people do. Like, at all. You’re probably nodding your head right now because you know it’s true. It’s not all press releases and pitching stories. It’s actually a WHOLE lot more than that. Just ask them.

So to be the Word of Mouth guy of the group has made me realize that WOM is the answer to bridging that gap between social and traditional. When my team and I talk about a word of mouth program or concept with the social kids, their eyes light up, because they can easily see the digital hooks. And when we have that same conversation with the traditional folks, they easily get it too, because it’s a natural extension of what they are already doing. (Yes, ideally everyone would be in the same room when that conversation happens, but one thing at a time.)

I’m not saying that WOM is always the magic bullet. But I AM saying that it can be the bridge. The word of mouth discipline has its feet firmly planted in both the online and offline worlds (this is the part where I remind you that 90% of word of mouth conversations still happen offline). Because, built the right way, WOM programs that engage people in remarkable experiences push people online. And the reverse is also true. It’s actually a cycle: online to offline and offline to online.

So when you’re starting to work on that new project or even when the word “integrated” comes up, remember that word of mouth can help bridge the gap between two worlds. It just may be the difference between just another campaign that falls flat and a powerful, successful engagement.

Like victims of high school peer pressure, everyone in the digital world is talking about how social business is the next big thing. And I’m not here to argue if it is or isn’t. Brother Armano recently wrote a great post about the evolution of digital that lays it out very nicely and talks about the natural evolution of social media into social business. It’s the next logical step, really. In fact, we’re seeing more and more businesses come on the scene that not only are trying to crack the social business nut, but are actually calling themselves social business businesses.

That’s pretty bold.

In a conversation with Chuck last week, we were discussing the state of the digital industry. It started with the obvious: that social media is just that: media. Tools. Things we can turn on and off and plug in and unplug and dial up or down  – you know, just like advertising. It’s mechanical “things” – at least the media part of it. But social business – this idea that social will come in and permeate every singe section of a company – that’s waaayyyyy different. In fact, it can’t happen unless there’s a fundamental cultural change within a company.

And therein lies the problem. Impossible? No. Hard? Very. To walk in to a company and tell them that in order to become a social business, they’re going to have to fundamentally shift the way they think about everything they do – internally and externally – is a damn hard sell. Because changing the culture of the company is no easy task. Volumes have been written about it. But ultimately it comes down to a willingness to do it from all parties involved and a push from the both the top-down and the bottom-up.

I’ve been lucky enough to have been involved in word of mouth projects that have ignited cultural change within companies. I wish we could say that we set out to do it in the first place, but it was a result of a long-term, sustainable program that started under the PR division and then spread through marketing, advertising, HR, finance and so-on. It was amazing to watch and within 12 months, the entire company had begun to shift culturally.

So maybe that’s how you start. Small. Bit-by-bit. With something obvious that you know will begin to creep into the dark corners of a company and bring them into the fold. Telling a company of 400,000 people that everything is going to change is a lot harder than letting them see how you can take one section of a company, change it for the better and let them wrap their heads around it.

Change is hard. But when the right people (dare I say “influencers?”) within a company are dedicated to make it happen, it’s a beautiful thing. But before we go throwing around the term “social business,” let’s really be clear what we’re talking about.