Bzzagent: Word-of-mouth marketing based on real social relationships

This article from @socialbeta Reader @colachao contribution, thanks.

There was a time when the word "Word-of-mouth marketing" was very much rejected. "Word-of-mouth Communication", I understand that people or things to the spontaneous praise. However, these years Word-of-mouth communication becomes an important marketing means, even someone put "word-of-mouth marketing" as "viral marketing" or "PR", especially with the development of social media network, more and more enterprises, marketing public relations companies are planning and launching a set of "Word-of-mouth marketing" action. Temporarily do not evaluate these "Word-of-mouth marketing" program to bring the actual effect of the enterprise, just stand in the consumer's point of view, we are now a bit too much marketing. Daily living in a large number of advertising information, but sometimes feel powerless, information scattered overlapping, exaggerated false, let us at a loss. Once those we can rely on the rankings, evaluation sites, communities, blogs are full of various types of soft wen, authenticity difficult to distinguish. In my opinion, "Word-of-mouth marketing" most of the enterprise self-guided self-acting, lively but not necessarily significant results.

It was a chance to learn in the US about the originator of Word-of-mouth marketing, a social media marketing company that founded Boston a decade ago, and I must admit that the company corrected my bias against word-of-mouth marketing and-bzzagent me into a loyal supporter.

To put it simply, Bzzagent is an intermediary company that acts as a product or service agent and carries out Word-of-mouth marketing. Bzz that Buzz, said people talk about, Bzzagent currently has more than 800,000 registered users, these users are some ordinary netizens, but they all have a common feature, that is "happy to share", bzzagent operation of 1500 Enterprises Word-of-mouth Marketing Project, These projects are carried out through a specific group of 800,000 registered users.

1. Promoter Assessment.

Bzzagent registered users Not everyone will be involved in any Word-of-mouth marketing campaign. After signing the Word-of-mouth Marketing project agreement with Bzzagent, the enterprise will decide the target user group with Bzzagent, and invite the users to participate in the Bzzagent user database, and become the promoter of the project (Buzz Agent).

2. Experience and spread.

These buzz agents usually receive a product sample from the company, or a discount coupon. They can disseminate these product demos, discount coupons or product information in any way, and collect user feedback.

3. Feedback report.

The Buzz agent must record the product feedback that it collects and submit it through the feedback system in the Bzzagent backend.

This seems to be more of a product's user research than Word-of-mouth marketing, but that's not the case.

First, we must be clear, what is the purpose of Word-of-mouth marketing?

The spontaneous spread between users, expanding product or brand influence. So can bzzagent achieve this goal. The answer is yes, because the number of registered users in this project is not the bzzagent of the project, but the product promoter, who for a variety of reasons, or because it is a loyal user of the brand, Or because you want to improve your influence in your daily work, the product is naturally introduced to your family, friends, and even all kinds of contacts on your social network. They are not selling products, they are letting more people know about the product through their own networks. The feedback they collect requires real, good or bad reviews to be fed back. Some of these users are face-to-face communication, others through the facebook/twitter and other online social media to share, a lot of people will be on their own blog or personal home page to introduce. Imagine a Word-of-mouth marketing project, with 3,000 bzzagent involved, how much impact will they have?

The following video is about the Bzzcampaign case of Starbucks in the launch of the Pike Market Baking coffee (Pike place roast). In this project, through the screening of bzzagent users, a total of 8,000 users participated in the promotion, the spread of the impact of the number of 1.5 million people, and in Facebook,twitter,youtube,blogger and other sites set off a discussion boom, And therefore brings 120,000 new users for Starbucks. Although we don't have a clear idea of how Buzzagent defines this 12W new user at the moment, the effect is obvious in terms of influence.

In addition, in addition to expanding brand impact, the collection of user feedback to understand the needs of users is also helping enterprises improve their products and services. Microsoft's Xbox 360 with Kinect and Amazon's Kindle are impressively listed through Bzzagent's current open projects, and users on the Bzzagent blog network recently discussed the upcoming Black Friday for promotions , and these voices will be feedback to the enterprise in the process of communication, so that enterprises can adjust their products or marketing strategies in time.

Before, I have a few deep doubts?

What motivates users to register as Buzzagent, and is happy to be a product promoter.

The promoter selection for each project is based on what data is being carried out and is consistent with the target positioning of the enterprise product. How to ensure that user feedback is true and effective?

Through my own hands-on experience and interviews with bzzagent users, I feel that these problems are the bzzagent of success. Share with you here.

1. Willing to Share.

The reason to put this first, is my deep feeling in the United States for a few months, most of the Americans are talkative, especially among friends and relatives, we are happy to share the exchange, with the Americans, you do not have to worry about the silence. This is why facebook/twitter such products were born in the United States, not elsewhere. After using a product or service, people are happy to introduce to people around, but not to show off. Whether good or bad, most people will be more direct to express their views. Bzzagent has developed for 10 years, China has not been successful imitators, perhaps the most fundamental reason is still here.

2. Free products or coupon.

Many registered bzzagent are students or housewives at school, and have to say that they do have a greater interest in some free products and discounted information. They don't get paid by introducing users or influencing users, but these big packages of freebies or coupons are enough to get them excited.

3. Build your own influence.

Buzzagent has a very comprehensive survey of registered users, each registered user to complete the first step is to fill out all kinds of investigation reports. The survey found that these registered users want to help others solve problems, they want to be rated as a knowledgeable person, they are willing to help users make better purchase decisions, they want to build their personal influence.

I wouldn't have found the company strong if it hadn't been registered as a bzzagent user. As mentioned in the previous survey, I completed a total of 42 test questionnaires, from my personal basic information, hobbies, network applications, health, diet, sports, social and other life habits of the understanding. So why would I want to do so much research? Because this is my promotion opportunity of the necessary link. In fact, this is the enterprise in the operation of a Word-of-mouth marketing project at the beginning of the user screening and evaluation basis. For example, a baby skincare product usually picks up registered users who have children of their own or who have children at home. For example, a smartphone app will only choose to have a smartphone, and often download people who use apps to get involved. In the case of Starbucks mentioned earlier, if you don't get coffee once a week, you probably won't be invited.

Of course, Bzzagent's user management system is much more than that. Because of the need for Word-of-mouth marketing influence has the greatest protection, bzzagent set a very perfect user rating system. These levels are based on the number of credit accumulated by these promoter, there are many ways to get credit, he can be your current impact indicators (such as Klout score), as well as the past participation in the results of the project to assess, in each participating project, you bring the number of feedback, The feedback quality will be scored accordingly. We know that the Klout influence index is mainly judged by the number of fans and the spread of your social media accounts. However, perhaps a user has a high Klout score, but he is not a willing to spread and share the people, then he will not be an ideal high level of promotion. After you have reached a certain score and completed the tasks defined at that level, you will be promoted to a higher level. The rights enjoyed by different user levels are not the same, for example, for some high-end products or services, or in the enterprise requirements, only a certain level of users have the opportunity to receive invitations, so that the user is virtually to inspire.

Bzzagent Web site has a very complete feedback collection system, participate in the promotion of the project users only need to be within the time required to input feedback records. Recently they launched the iphone App so that the promoter can record user reviews and feedback in the promotion process in time. Some of my classmates are bzzagent users, to their experience, the more detailed feedback written, can not just a simple sentence good or bad, it is best to record the user's behavior when using, language and so on.

Well-known brands in the Buzzagent to carry out a high-end product bzzcampaign, charging about $300,000, bzzagent the number of promotion can reach 10000 people. Usually such projects are used for the release of new products, compared to the general direct promotion method, bzzagent ROI can often achieve a more satisfactory results. One of the most important reasons is that most of the communication is based on real social relationships, the Promoter is usually able to influence the relatives, friends and other people around them, people will usually more trust their own knowledge and familiar with the evaluation and information, and more willing to discuss and share product use information with these people , which I am afraid is the true meaning of "word-of-mouth" spread.

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Submission @colachao

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