Go beyond the game with fan stories

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Permalink Reply by Jason Peck on January 21, 2008 at 12:40am

Interesting thoughts. Personally, I don't see "word of mouth" as the stuff that took place in ancient markets. At least not the only stuff. Word of Mouth, to me, means individuals recommending products/services to their friends. It's a tactic that may have good intentions, but is often abused, as brands try to artificially create "WOM" where it doesn't necessarily exist.

What took place in ancient markets was more than this--it was conversation and entertainment--arguing, talking, haggling, drama, excitement, etc. People discussed things that were going on in their lives....products were a part of this but not always the focal point. Marketers need to understand that not everything people say about them will be positive (unless you give them a service or product that is amazing, and even then there will probably be critics). People who participate in online communities may be more likely to be brand advocates, but they are also more likely to be critics. Social media gives everyone a voice; people can use social media to recommend but they can also use it to complain and criticize.

I guess what I'm trying to say is to be prepared for both good and bad fan/brand stories. A positive story can be a great thing but a negative story will probably have a greater (worse) affect. Before getting involved with any fan/consumer stories, a brand must decide how to handle negative stories. And I'm not sure what the best way to do this is. What are your thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Chad Bockius on January 21, 2008 at 2:45pm

Jason,

Thanks for the reply. I agree that other activities took place in ancient marketplaces. That being said it is interesting to point out that word-of-mouth played a key role in commerce (positive or negative) in the early days and still does in the age of Web 2.0.

Let me offer a few thoughts on positive/negative stories. Since Bazaarvoice has been around we have processed over 2.5 million reviews. Well over 80 of those reviews were in fact positive (we call it the J-Curve effect).

We also recently completed a study with Keller Fay to learn more about why consumers write reviews. Here are a few key findings:
- 79 percent write reviews in order to reward a company
- 87 percent of the reviews are generally positive in tone (self reported, but matches our actual findings of the J-Curve where 80% reviews are positive)

With all that said you will get negative feedback. It is a fact of life. We simply don't live in a 5-star world. However, negative stories provide instant credibility to the positive ones. In fact, many of our clients have told us that negative feedback is more valuable in ways than the positive. It validates that the content is authentic, it provides critical feedback to make improvements and it can uncover issues earlier then ever before.

A few final thoughts. Stories are very different from reviews. You decide what types of stories you want to collect. For example, "tell us about your best NFL game experience", "tell us who you favorite player is and why", etc. You decide what stories you want to collect.

I should also point out that you should never go down this path without human moderation in place. We work with our clients to define the rules governing appropriate posts. This varies from client to client but at the end of the day the customer decides what is appropriate for their brand.

I am sure this will be a popular topic to discuss. Please send back any additional thoughts.

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