Zócalo Group is widely recognized as an industry pioneer and leader in building sustainable Word of Mouth Marketing and social media campaigns for a number of the world's leading brands. As your brand seeks to engage consumers and influencers in social media, new media, traditional media, and offline channels, these are the eight foundational essentials to Word of Mouth Marketing:

1. Know what people are saying about you and how they are recommending you right now.

   • With blogs, microblogs, message boards, online communities and other online resources, we can explicitly see the naked language consumers and experts use to talk about brands, competitors and industries. Marketers can forgo the focus group and get an invaluably real and incomparably raw understanding of what people are saying and why they are buying - today and tomorrow.

2. Change the conversation to the right one - the one you want your industry experts and consumer advocates having

   • While we cannot control conversations and recommendations, we can definitely shape and influence them. It is essential for brands to craft the story they want told, and then to provide the information and opportunities for influencers and advocates to experience and share the brand.

3. Focus on the right people. Find and engage the individuals who genuinely love your brand and the industry experts who shape the conversations and discourse within your competitive category.

   • Forget the "freebie-seekers" and those who will only write or talk about you because they are paid to do so. Within each category, there are 300 to 500 Industry Eminents (experts) and thousands of individuals who are the essential thought leaders, conversation starters and real drivers of word on mouth. Zócalo Group finds them, listens to them and gives them reasons to talk about your brand.

4. Defend against the wrong people. Protect your brand when it's under attack.

   • Your brand's integrity and reputation is its most valuable asset. But in our Web 2.0 era, both are perpetually at stake, as angry customers, cutthroat competitors, corporate crises and simple "misinformation" has been empowered like never before. Zócalo Group can help to identify, evaluate and combat mistruths in real-time to set the record straight, and actively shape the story of your brand and your category before it is shaped for you.

5. Move beyond buzz. Build genuine relationships to foster sustainable conversations and recommendations - online and offline.

   • We all love buzz. Until it stops. After all, you can only be "hot" for so long. Real value comes from building sustainable word of mouth and by continuously engaging consumers and experts. To truly build your brand and grow your market share, you must forge the essential relationships that drive ongoing recommendations.

6. Get real impact from your media relations. Optimize each placement to guarantee maximum visibility, lifespan and impact.

   • There's nothing like a great "hit." But today, that is just the start. Heard of the "long tail?" Make sure you smartly and aggressively optimize every single Public Relations placement for maximum lifespan and impact, ensuring it shows up anytime someone searches for information on your brand or category.

7. Aggressively shape how and where you show up in search results. Ensure that the consumer's first interaction with your brand is the right one.

   • More than 80 percent of people first interact with your brand via a Search Engine - not your homepage. Paid Search and smart Search Engine optimization can catapult your brand to the top of the Search Engine results. But conversations are also an essential driver of where and how your brand shows up in search results. Find the best third-party testimonials about your brand and optimize these conversations to be the first pieces of information people encounter when they seek out your brand or category.

8. Measure impact to demonstrate ROI and ensure your strategy remains right on target.

   • Without explicit measurement, marketing is meaningless. Not only is Word of Mouth the most effective form of marketing available - it's also among the most measurable. Brands that have the highest level of recommendation usually are or become market leaders.