Read about Ernest Dichter's background and a summary of his insightful article in Harvard Business Review in 1966, How Word of Mouth Advertising Works: http://www.brandautopsy.com/2013/09/ernest-dichter-on-word-of-mouth-marketi...

You can also find David Aaker, renowned branding and marketing professor and consultant discuss this article in HBR's Blog: http://blogs.hbr.org/2011/06/secrets-of-social-media-reveal/

The five category of insights into consumers motivations to engage in word of mouth advertising are very relevant to how we engage consumers on social media today:

1) Speakers' Motivations
2) Listeners' Motivations
3) Creating "Aha" Experiences
4) How to Simulate WOM
5) How to Stimulate WOM

People like to share content that is funny, entertaining, and inspiring.
Cute kitty videos play a big role in that...
But it is not enough to be cute. The content has to evoke a strong emotion. Read Scott Stratten's (Founder of Unmarketing) post in Fastcompany on what makes content go viral: http://www.fastcompany.com/1844017/why-no-one-will-watch-your-crappy-corpor...

50 years later social media is exactly what Dichter noted back then - what makes social media effective is that it is social, it is about a two-way or many to many communication.
Hubspot offers great advice to use social media on their blog:
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34180/30-Terrible-Pieces-of-Soc...

Brands today use social media to build trust and authentically communicate their passion for their products: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2012/10/31/6-ways-brands-build-tru...

When Southwest and director Kevin Smith went head to head, Southwest’s social media team immediately tweeted acknowledging Kevin Smith's tweets and that he would be contacted by the VP.

"While reactions to Southwest’s decision to eject Smith from his flight have been mixed, its immediate response on a Saturday night allowed the company to be perceived as committed to a controversial policy, rather than a much worse alternative: ambivalent to customer concerns."
http://mashable.com/2010/02/24/social-media-trust/

There are many ways in which companies are inviting consumers to be part of the creation process - from co-creating ads, sharing content, to developing the products themselves. See examples here: http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/customer-made.htm
A more recent example is Doritos' 2014 Crash the Superbowl contest: http://videocontestnews.com/tag/doritos/

Let the message be worthy of sharing. Make it entertaining, funny, informative, inspiring, and enjoyable.
And yes, cute kitty videos do get a lot of attention. I was not surprised that 15% of internet traffic is related to cats. Watch clips from the 2013 Internet Cat Video Festival and learn what makes cat videos so popular here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/02/internet-cat-video-festival-docume...

Brands like Nike with their slogan, Just Do It, are speaking to their target audience interested in performance. For other examples of how language and living the values are important to your target audience see this article:
http://hbr.org/2013/03/advertisings-new-medium-human-experience/

See examples of companies that build customer loyalty by making their customers feel special:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kauffman/2012/06/26/win-their-loyalty-ensure-yo...

Longitudinal research over 10 years showed that companies that cared - for their customers, employees, suppliers, and the environment - outperformed S&P 500 companies by a factor of 10.5. It pays to be thoughtful and kind.
http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/04/companies-that-practice-conscious-capitalism-p...
Watch Scott Stratten speak about removing selfishness from marketing and the value of being thoughtful in social media interactions here:
http://mindfuluniverse.com/profiles/blogs/authentic-engagement-on-social-me...

What does it take to be authentic? Read this Fastcompany article for what it means to be authentic and when it does not:
http://www.fastcompany.com/59489/who-do-you-love

BlendTech CEO used videos to share the power of his blenders. The viral videos increased their sales by 700%:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6t92m1gwTY

Pepperidge Farm shares its history and heritage on its website:
"Margaret Rudkin, a Connecticut housewife and mother of three young children, discovers one of her sons has an allergy to commercial breads that contain preservatives and artificial ingredients. So in 1937, she begins experimenting with baking her own preservative-free bread for her ailing son -- ultimately perfecting a delicious whole-wheat loaf that contained only natural ingredients. Encouraged by her family and her son's doctor, she begins a small business out of her kitchen selling her "Pepperidge Farm" bread to local grocers. Named for her family's farm in Fairfield, Connecticut, consumers recognize her homemade bread's quality and buy every loaf she baked."
http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/history.aspx

Chipotle Mexican Grill's video that went viral hardly mentioned the company, rather it told a story that embodies the company values:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/09/16/beautiful-chipotle-promo-video-goes-vir...

Patagonia appoints ambassadors who are field testers and storytellers for their tribe:
http://www.patagonia.com/us/ambassadors

A big contributor to Amazon's success is its ability to allow consumers to share their reviews.
This article in Harvard Business Review argues that companies can build trust among consumers by making the shopping process simple for consumers and includes many examples of facilitating consumers to help other consumers.
http://hbr.org/2012/05/to-keep-your-customers-keep-it-simple/ar/3
"Disney has done an outstanding job in this regard with its Walt Disney World Moms Panel. A selected group of Disney World veteran moms answer questions from consumers who are planning Disney vacations. In one recent case, a consumer asked about good viewing places for the parade; she had two children who wouldn’t be able to stand the whole time. She got perfectly tailored advice from Jackie S. With 25 Disney World trips under her belt, Jackie has the experience to make her information credible. Consumers can get a further sense of her reliability by reviewing her profile on the Disney World website and reading about her family, her hometown, and even how she met her husband. Such details matter: They help consumers assess the trustworthiness of the advice they’re getting and allow them to judge how well that advice applies to their own situations.

The lesson for marketers: Build cadres of trustworthy advisers rather than simply developing recommenders who will push the brand. Then aggregate their advice and make it easy for consumers to discover and use it, as J.C. Penney—whose haul videos get hundreds of thousands of views—so successfully does. "

Having seemingly contradictory ideas in your blog title can draw people in. For example, a Weight Watchers product blog has a title, "Eat Brownies and Lose Weight."
If you do it just to trick people, it can backfire so genuinely believe in the duality and only if you embrace the unusual point of view, share it.

See how Apple guarantees that you will remember its twitter-friendly message: http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2013/09/10/how-apple-guarantees-yo...

Hootsuite, a social media dashboard, hosts a blog where they have many videos to show the many ways users can benefit from the dashboard that they might not have thought of on their own.
http://blog.hootsuite.com/

Oreo's picture during power outage in the middle of Super Bowl went viral:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57567384-93/how-oreos-brilliant-blackout-t...

Everyone likes to be loved and acknowledged. Your customers are no exception. Acknowledge and reward your loyal customers. Social media helps you do that: http://jcsocialmarketing.com/2012/01/acknowledge_reward/

People like to be helpful if they believe in the cause. See how social media can help in philanthropic activities and fundraising:
http://www.bethkanter.org/ocean-love-earl-thanks/

50 years later Dichter's recommendations are still relevant and easier to implement with the advent of social media technology.
http://marketing.njstatelib.org/blogs/2013/oct/01/tmcclary/7_ways_to_make_y...

This presentation is part of the Social Media Strategy class for online MBAs taught at the Isenberg School of Management, UMass
Please contact Shalini Bahl for more details:
shalini@Mfactor.org