Public Relations: Let's Give Them Something To Talk About

Abstract: Spohr argues for the importance of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing, outlining the five steps for building such a campaign.

The prerequisite for a WOM campaign is "high quality products and excellent customer service."

After that, there are five steps to follow:

1. build relationships;
2. identify champions;
3. develop a message;
4. talk with your champions; and
5. collect success stories.

Review

I was most struck by Spohr's claim that "honest and transparent communication is required." Too often business-like tools - including marketing - gets short shrift in an academic library. But, in the case of libraries, one is not following a pure profit motive, but is trying to connect users to the free and helpful resources that could make their research easier and better. This is marketing that's on the side of the angels, so to speak.

Spohr, Cindy. (2008). Public Relations - Let's Give Them Something To Talk About. Spectrum, 12(7). Retrieved November 9, 2008, from http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_sp0805/pub_sp0805_PR.pdf