The Word of Mouth Crash Course: The “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” Conference will take place on May 5, 2o12 in Austin, Texas.

The Word of Mouth Crash Course features 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, 6 brilliant authors, and an inspiring keynote from former Southwest Airlines President Colleen Barrett — all in one thrilling day. It’s going to blow your mind.

You’ll learn essential word of mouth skills in classes like how to create buzzworthy topics, how to get great reviews, how to create a fan community, and how to measure it all. You’ll discover how brands like Threadless, Maker’s Mark, Costco, Movember, Domino’s, and Boeing earn word of mouth every day.

You’ll learn practical, hands-on techniques to get started, earn love from customers, and create amazing word of mouth.

I am truly excited to be contributing to the cause as a live blogger (and perhaps doing some sketchnotes) and in getting to meet Andy Sernovitz, Cale Johnson, Geno Church, Saul Colt, and Spike Jones in person!

Let me know if you’ll be heading down to Austin for the Crash Course and I’ll be sure to say hello and buy you a coffee.

Twitter is an absolutely great tool and I love the simplicity and effectiveness of it.  140 characters.  Get straight to the point.

Using Twitter is also a must for businesses, non-profit organizations and people seeking to build their brands or community online.  It’s quickly becoming a badge of credibility.

The flip side is you have to understand the rules and ideas behind it.  Much has already been written about how to use Twitter so I’ll not regurgitate that information, but I will share some “rules of thumb” I’ve adapted I feel are beneficial.

Rule #1:  Turn It Off.

Yes, I really said that!  I don’t mean to not use it but to avoid killing your productivity.  Turn off those nagging alerts or apps on your desktop that draw you away from work.  Twitter can be a huge time suck if you leave it up throughout the day.

Rule #2: Quality over Quantity.

Sometimes I think Twitter is like high school…a popularity contest.  We all want to have fans, friends, or followers and it can make us feel great to have thousands, but let’s be honest – how many real friends can you really have? Sure, follow if you want but I prefer a stronger, tight knit community who really cares for me.  Wouldn’t you?

Rule #3: Maybe I’ll Follow, Maybe I Won’t.

I don’t intend to be mean but I am not one of those people who will follow everyone who follows me (see above).  I do check out every one who does follow me and will keep my eye on them before welcoming them to my family.  I also block people who are shady or love spam.

Rule #4:  If You Sell Fruitcake You Are Done!

It’s the gift most people don’t want.  On Twitter these are the people whose only goal is to promote, get followers, or tell you a bunch of crap.  If you machine gun tweets I’ll bazooka you!  It’s OK to promote and share your services or products but just do it tastefully.

Remember there are common courtesies and rules that all Tweeples generally adhere to but there are also some practices you will have to decide for yourself.  Use the tried and true and adapt the others to work for you.

It can be difficult to find a company or an organization that has a brand identity that just screams “awesome!”   In fact, so many people follow the leader that they never become a leader.  Not Cult Marketing!

I’ve been checking out their brand message and their story and I find it absolutely refreshing to discover a business I would want to do business with.  Cult Marketing’s tagline is “a holistic consulting company focused on creating Cult Customers” and by the looks of their website, they can deliver.

There are some people who would be scared of the terminology cult but it can be used in a positive sense and your company or organization should strive to create a cult for your brand.  I guess you could call them evangelists, tribes, groupies, or whatever – but the idea behind it is the same: turn people into fanatics about your product or service.

I still believe that emotional branding and creating passionate people for your business is the key to successful ROI, especially in this economically challenged world.  Cult Marketing is one of those brands that we should take some notes from.

I love branding and have spent 15 years learning about and teaching on the subject.  I guess you would say that I am a brand junkie!   But all is not what it used to be and branding and marketing have blurred the lines between what is fact and what is fiction.  I’m currently reading Obsessive Branding Disorder: The Illusion of Business and the Business of Illusion by Lucas Conley and it has brought up some really great thoughts about this profession.  I’ll write my book review when I complete the book, but the last two chapters, four and five, got me on a tangent and asking a few questions.

1. How many people that invest in their blogs (business or personal) sell advertising or market products with it?
2. How many of those products or services that you take money for do you actually use personally?
3. Is promoting brands that you don’t like or use just for the cash unethical or dishonest?

As our society becomes so driven on brands, marketing, and money I believe people will just start peddling a bunch of crap and this is not good for branding, people making the products or offering services, or for ourselves personally.

How many people remember the AT&T program where you were rewarded for selling out your friends and family?   There may be die hard lovers of the AT&T brand and that’s cool, but how many gave a flip less other than the fact there was a carrot at the end of the stick? We convinced our closest loved ones to join the party and then the party went bad.  It hurt all of us and tainted our view on referring friends.

It’s stupid to continue on this course of selling out for a dollar — especially when Americans are even willing to sell ad space on their children to earn a buck [see page 109].  We must stop the madness!  I admit that I’ve accepted cash for advertising services on websites I would never recommend to anyone and I’m ashamed.  Why?  It just feels wrong.

We are in a time where we need to represent our brands with honesty and responsibility and not blur the lines by making it just about marketing and money.  We owe it to ourselves and our readers to promote and sell only the things we truly believe in.  We must change our patterns of consumerism or stand the chance that every one will begin to eye each other with extreme cynicism and kill all of our credibility in the future.