Are You Contagious? If Not, Follow these Six Steps

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Achoo!  Under the right conditions, a sneeze or cough can spread sickness far and wide.  All it takes is for one infected person on a plane or in a crowded room to pass the condition to dozens, maybe hundreds more.

Most of us understand how a virus spreads and epidemics begin.  But few use that knowledge when communicating to reach a larger audience. By making your communications more contagious, or “sticky,” you can increase their impact, longevity and spread.

Epidemics

The 1918 Influenza epidemic was the deadliest plague in history.  It killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS killed in 24 years, more in a year than the Black Plague in a century.

According to The Great Influenza by John Barry, the virus had humble beginnings.  It started in isolated Haskell County, Kansas.  Soldiers on leave caught and brought it to the 60,000 men at nearby Fort Pierce. Aided troop movements, it circled the globe and killed 50-100 million people in 18 months.

Information moves even faster than disease.  Within minutes the entire world knew about the 9/11 attacks. Media helped initially, but word-of-mouth spread it around the globe in minutes.  That’s because 9/11 was the ultimate sticky message, one quickly shared by friends, family and coworkers.

Going Viral

Viral videos also show how quickly information spreads.  Unfortunately, the odds of creating a successful viral video are miniscule.  In fact, Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield recommends you don’t even bother trying.

“Fishing for rainbow trout?  If you catch one,” he writes by way of analogy, “it’ll probably weigh 2 pounds. You will not catch a 42-pound rainbow trout.  Oh, it’s been done…and it’s conceivable somebody will hook another one. But it won’t be you. “

Fortunately, you don’t need a viral video or 9/11 to make sticky messages.  With a few simple tips, your media releases, direct mail and website will be more likely to cling.

Money magazine provides an opportunity to compare the stickiness of different messages. Five health nonprofits placed ads the magazine.  None were outrageous or “went viral.”

But the Alzheimer’s Association’s ad was better and incorporated elements of all six criteria needed to create a sticky and more memorable message.

Six Steps to Stickiness

How do you get “sticky?” Authors Chip and Dan Health offer six recommendations in Made to Stick. Elements of each can be seen in the Alzheimer’s Association ad above.

• Simplicity – Strip your ideas to their core elements.
• Unexpectedness – Being different captures and holds someone’s attention.
• Concreteness – Specificity makes your message easier to process and remember.
• Credibility – Are your spokespersons believable?
• Emotion – Connect beyond facts and figures.
• Stories – Are memorable and effective teaching tools.

While no guarantee (not all seven-footers play in the NBA), incorporating these elements will make your messages more contagious.  Like sneezing on a crowded airplane.

Popcorn Problem

The Center for Science in the Public Interest had a problem: How to convince the media and public about the unhealthiness of movie popcorn (37 grams of saturated fat per serving).

That’s a tall order.  Americans are inundated with messages on healthy eating.  How could CSPI break through the noise, and get noticed, with nothing more than dry fact (37 grams of fat)?

They called a called a press conference with the following message: A medium-sized movie popcorn contains more saturated fat than a bacon and egg breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and steak dinner with all the trimmings.

And just in case the reporters missed the message, each item was carefully laid out on a table for comparison.

The story contained nearly every element of stickiness.  The result? CSPI generated national media coverage and public awareness.  More importantly, their sticky message mobilized the public to demand healthier popcorn options at the movies.

Conclusion

Information spreads like a virus.  The stickier your message, the more likely you’ll create an information epidemic.

Creating “sticky” communications is not difficult. It starts with knowing your audience, what you want them to do (“call to action”) and what motivates them to act.

Then, following the Six Steps to Stickiness, you can generate communications that people will read, respond to, and pass along to their friends, co-workers and loved ones and others.

A barrier to creating stickiness is often an unwillingness to be “unexpected.”  The good news is that you don’t have to be outrageous to get noticed.

New GE Study: Word-of-Mouth Referrals Improve Traditional Marketing Efforts

Marketers have long assumed content shared by friends or other influencers carries more weight than paid placements.  Someone is more likely to visit a restaurant when referred by a friend, the thinking goes, than from a television or radio ad.

Now General Electric has some proof.

In late 2011, the company compared the effectiveness of a paid advertising campaign and paid advertising campaign coupled with online-sharing.   Overall, consumers who saw the ad and received a referral from a friend were 138% more likely to view GE favorably than those who saw the ad alone.

The results of the test were originally published in the January 25th edition of Advertising Age.

“Personal referrals are far and away the most influential form of communications,” said Sparklight Communications President Joseph LaMountain.  “Yet many companies and causes fail to incorporate word-of-mouth into their marketing and communications campaigns.”

For example, organizations can raise significant levels of awareness, or funding, for an issue by asking its supporters to share  information to friends, neighbors and work colleagues.  Yet too often this valuable “human capital” is not effectively mobilized.

Word-of-Mouth is Most Trusted Media Source

There’s a new restaurant in town.  What will convince you to try it: A newspaper ad or a friend’s recommendation?

The recommendation wins hands down, every time.  That’s because a recommendation from a friend is a far more trusted source of information than a paid advertisement.

We know that intuitively, but a new report from Nielsen finds that consumers trust in word-of-mouth appeals has increased dramatically: 18% since 2007.  By comparison, consumers trust in paid television and radio advertising has fallen by 25% or more.

According to Nielsen, “92% percent of consumers around the world say they trust…word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.”  What puzzles me is why more groups and business don’t jump on this bandwagon and get their people talking!

The Amputee Coalition is an organization using word-of-mouth to raise awareness.  During April, the group has recruited hundreds of companies, medical professionals and individuals to distribute educational materials in their community.  The group is hoping to distribute 1 million cards and generate just as many conversations.

A campaign like this also keeps members engaged with the organization.  All-too-often the only time someone hears from a group is when they’re looking for a handout.  Studies show that the more a volunteer is engaged with a group’s mission, the more money they will give to that group.  Talk about a no-brainer!

The Big Flea Thrives on Word of Mouth

The fifth annual MV Big Flea was held last weekend in Alexandria, Virginia.  This year the annual flea market raised an impressive $30,619 from nearly 2,000 attendees.

Since 2007, the MV Big Flea has raised $93,481 for the Mount Vernon Community School PTA. Not bad for a public elementary school where 2/3rds of the kids qualify for free and reduced-price lunches.

But what’s even more surprising is the role word-of-mouth communications have  played in the Big Flea’s success.

“We don’t have a big advertising budget,” said MV Big Flea spokesperson Maria Getoff.  “We’ve spent less than $1,000 on advertising, and about $7,500 total, to organize and promote the event since 2007.  Instead, we’ve relied on inexpensive grassroots and word of mouth communications tactics to spread the word.”

Local community listservs are the MV Big Flea’s primary means for reaching thousands of potential donors and event attendees.  Organizers do their best to to make the messages “sticky” so they have staying power and spread throughout the community (see here and here).

Organizers rely heavily on other online resources: Craigslist to sell items (and promote the event), Freecycle to get rid of the leftovers, a WordPress blog for a website and targeted Facebook ads to raise awareness in the week before the event.

Old fashioned tactics like personal meetings with community leaders, yard signs and photocopied flyers also help spread the word.  As a result, despite a very limited presence in the local media, the MV Big Flea is widely known in Alexandria and attended by thousands each year.

Don’t Overlook the Power of the Phone

The new Broadway musical Sister Act has found its social media groove. It has more than 55,000 Facebook “likes,” 1300 Twitter followers, 30,000 YouTube views and a set of apps.

But as The New York Times reports, there’s just one problem.  “Ask Broadway insiders how many tickets have been sold as a result of all this social networking, and the look on their faces reads, ‘Server Not Found.'”

“You hope these sites generate good word of mouth,” said Sister Act director Jerry Zaks, but the the “best measure of our popularity and financial return is group sales.”

And according to the article, group sales are driven largely by the tried and true method of sales agents working the phones. The agents work from decades-old databases of church groups, schools, businesses and clubs and work these contacts to make sales.

“This is a relationship business and I can trust Stephanie [my sales Representative],” said one ticket buyer who sends 35 groups a year to Broadway. “I don’t know who is on the other end of a Twitter or Facebook account saying such-and-such a show is good.”

Though Broadway tickets sales are far removed from the nonprofit world, I think there’s a couple takeaways here for nonprofit leaders. First, it is important to have a robust social media presence in order to generate word of mouth and exposure for your cause.

But where Broadway excels, and most nonprofits fall flat, is the next step. Following up personally with potential supporters by phone and making the sales pitch. I’ve been amazed how many organizations fail to take this crucial step in their fundraising, awareness and advocacy efforts.

For example, a nonprofit with whom I work was organizing a fundraising walk. More than 4,000 people had participated in previous years, but had not registered for the 2011 event. But instead of setting up volunteer- or staff-led phone banks, or even paying someone to call, they relied exclusively on social media and email. Result: Money left on the table.

“Facebook and Twitter are great tools,” said Stephanie Lee, President of Group Sales Box Office said, “but the buzz from all these shows can be deafening.”

While decidedly unsexy – the Times calls them “version 1.0” on Broadway – the company’s communications plan is clearly working. Ticket orders were up 43% from last year, a track record of success few nonprofits or businesses can match in this economic client.

Do you need help reaching your audience?  Contact Joseph LaMountain at joseph.lamountain@gmail.com or 202.288.5124 today.

OMG! Look at the Video on this Website!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t get many emails with that subject line.  So when they arrive, I tend to open them.

It was from my friend Maria.  Our kids were in a snitch because of cancelled recesses.  It had been raining, and the Mount Vernon School’s gym is overcrowded, so the kids had recess in their classroom for a few days.

And they weren’t thrilled about it.

“I was searching online for indoor recess ideas to give to the principal.” she wrote.  On Peaceful Playgrounds, she noticed “a video featuring two Mount Vernon” kids playing the Dr. Pepper Handclapping game.

My kids.

When I first wrote about the Dr. Pepper Handclapping game, I marveled about the commercial.  How could the lyrics of a 1970s television commercial live on?  The spot hadn’t aired in thirty years, but my girls managed to learn it on a Mexican beach from a British girl living in Texas.

As Phoebe said, “what a coincidence.”

I was so interested in this example of organic word-of-mouth  communications that I recorded Mein and Phoebe performing the game.  I uploaded it to YouTube and played it for my class at Georgetown. Then I mostly forgot about it.  That is, until a few months later, when I noticed it was getting a lot of traffic.

How much? It’s been seen 42,280 times since late January 2010, about 3,000 per month. To put that in perspective, the MV Big Flea, which we’ve hawked relentlessly for four years, has had 53,397 visitors (about 1,000 views a month).

And here was the video I shot, on the Peaceful Playgrounds website, for anyone to see.  How it got here, I have no idea.  And I think that’s what makes social media kind of cool.

A Bright Idea for Raising Awareness

Nearly every nonprofit tries to raise awareness about its cause.  Unfortunately, most rely on the same old tactics which, I find, don’t really reach or educate that many people.

Most groups try to raise awareness with media coverage.  They issue a news release, call a few reporters, maybe post a video on YouTube, and hope for the best.

If you’re lucky, this can result in a couple news stories.  But because we live in a 24/7 media culture, those stories are largely forgotten the next day.

My recommendation?  Stop focusing on mass media and start using “people media” to spread the word.  In other words, get your members and supporters to spread the word, and raise awareness, for you.

While mass media is fleeting, personal communications are persuasive and can have lasting impact.  Think about it this way: What would convince you to try a new restaurant in town, a newspaper advertisement or a recommendation from a friend?

Nonprofits often have thousands of volunteers who are willing and able to spread the word.  Put them to work!  By giving them specific tasks to perform, you can reach millions with your message while cultivating an active, informed and engaged membership.

The Epilepsy Foundation used this strategy for National Epilepsy Awareness Month in 2010.  It created the Get Seizure Smart! quiz and told volunteers how to distribute it.  More than 2.25 million copies were distributed through schools, libraries, businesses, houses of worship and online.

It gets better.  More than 95% of campaign participants declared it a success and said they’d do it again.  This is also a great way to show your members the value of supporting the organization.  My guess is that a follow-up fundraising appeal to this engaged audience would do spectacularly well.

Fortunately, a word-of-mouth campaign doesn’t cost a ton of money to create and implement.  So the next time you need to raise awareness about your cause, forget about mass media and instead harness the power of your supporters and friends.

The Shortcomings of Social Media

Social media is a great tool for spreading information. But as I’ve written before, there are many other tools for reaching people and getting them to act.  And some are much better than social media.

Malcolm Gladwell explores this theme to great effect in the most recent issue of The New Yorker.  Social media is great at mobilizing people to take very small, sometimes seemingly inconsequential actions (e.g. joining a Facebook group, forwarding a video to a friend), Gladwell writes.

But where it falls flat, he notes, is getting people to engage in “high-impact” activism, like desegregating lunch counters or donating money to Darfur and other worthy causes.  That’s because engagement in these kinds of activities requires a close personal connection to the issue.

Social media reduces the barriers between individuals, but doesn’t eliminate them. That’s why, if you are asking people to engage in “high impact” activities, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are probably not the most effective tools to use.

Political campaigns have learned this lesson.  Yes, they use social media.  They use it to stay top of mind and inform their constituency.  And for this it works great, as we saw in the Obama Campaign. But their “bread and butter” tactics are very personal: phone banks, knocking on doors and shaking hands at events.  Even though politicians are reviled, Americans donate billions to their campaigns and turn out by the tens of millions to vote each year.

Unfortunately, recruiting and organizing volunteers for phone banks and literature distribution is really hard work, often requiring a combination of tools. Social media is just one of these tools. Used in conjunction with other forms of outreach it can be outstanding. Used exclusively or without careful coordination of your other messaging, it will not yield the expected results.

5 Fast Ways to Make Facebook Work for You

If you aren’t careful, you can spend a lot of time on Facebook and accomplish very little.  You begin with the best of intentions, and before you know it you’re on your cousin’s page, clicking through to her new boyfriend’s profile, and reading about their  weekend activities.

Stop. If you’re on the clock, limit your FB time to strategically marketing yourself and your work.  Meandering aimlessly is a waste of valuable time.  Instead, by focusing on the five things below, you will be doing something good for yourself, your company and your FB friends.

1. Post Something Helpful – I like to post on education since that’s related to my client work and the school board.  But I also post things that are relevant for my friends. For example, I recently posted about a new documentary film for which I am planning a group viewing.  Once it’s organized, I will add it to my FB “Events” tab.

2. Ask for Input and Feedback – I was monitoring blogs for a client and asked my FB friends “What are the best economic blogs?” I received at least ten really good responses and the client was impressed with the list I developed. So not only did I get the information I needed, I was able to tell people what I am working on.

3. Be Interesting – Share what you’re doing each day, and with whom you are talking.  For example, “Analyzing social media for the Epilepsy Foundation and meeting with @Joseph LaMountain.”  Tagging your FB friends in your status update (with an @), places your post on their wall, doubling your exposure by sharing it with their friends.  Now twice as many people know what you do.

4.  It’s Someone’s Birthday – Check your birthdays list every day and give everyone a HBTY on their wall. This is just a great way to make their day and is quick and easy and keeps you top of mind.

5. Reply to Your Friends Posts – What are your FB friends talking about or commenting on?  If it’s related to your line of work, or even if it’s not, add your two cents to the mix.  Again, this is super fast, keeps you top of mind, exposes you to other people, and lets them know what you’re interested in and what you do.

Lately I’ve been reading two good books about Facebook and social media.  One is The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Hyder Kabani and the other is Facebook Marketing: Designing Your Next Marketing Campaign by Justin R. Levy. Both of these are excellent and I cannot recommend them highly enough if Facebook is part of your marketing and communications plan.

The Tea Party is NOT an Astroturf Movement!

I read today an essay by Erin Jenne about the Tea Party movement.  Jenne claims the Tea Party is not a grassroots movement because it has been largely bankrolled by corporate interests and because of the active involvement of media companies in its promotion.

Liberals are kidding themselves, and seriously understate the movement, if they believe this.

Corporate funding doesn’t disqualify the Tea Party from being a bona fide grassroots movement.  If it did, most cause-related grassroots organizations – Greenpeace, Sierra Club, Susan B Komen Foundation, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, American Cancer Society and many more – would not be considered grassroots.

Nor does the active involvement of the media.  Of course, the strong support of Fox News and CNBC have been instrumental in building the Tea Party.  But the Civil Rights movement and the anti-war movement of the 1960s, among others, benefited from broadcast and print media coverage and there’s no question both were grassroots in nature.

What makes the Tea Party a true grassroots movement is the active involvement of many people and that information is freely flowing among them.  Again, there’s no question this is being facilitated by corporate funding and media involvement.  But that’s what organizers do!  Do you really think that the 2008 Obama campaign, the best run grassroots political campaign in history, was completely devoid of media and corporate support?

And it’s this face-to-face communication, and the fact that people are working together locally, that makes it a real grassroots movement.  An astroturf campaign, on the other hand, is made to appear that it has this kind of support.  Given that the Tea Party movement has been able to convince 100K people to attend the “Restoring Honor” rally at the Mall, not to mention thousands of town hall meetings, makes plain that the movement enjoys broad public support.

And if you don’t believe me, just ask Mike Castle in Delaware or Lisa Murkowski in Alaska.