GasPedal will soon be hosting its second Word of Mouth Supergenius event in New York on July 20. It's bringing together the very best word of mouth marketers with 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant author sessions. It's awesome, it's fun, and we hope you can make it.

Meanwhile, check out these lessons to be learned from last year's videos and this year's previews. They're full of fantastic, practical ideas on how to get people talking about you. Here are a few of our favorite tips from WOMs presenting this year, too.

A few of our favorites:

1. "Delightful surprises earn long-term customer love." (Tony Hsieh, Zappos)

As a preview for Tony's keynote, we sat down with him to talk love, happiness, and word of mouth. One of Tony's key points is that some of the biggest triggers of Zappos' word of mouth is when they surprise and delight their customers. In our interview, he goes in depth on how they do it.

2. "Your best talkers aren't always your target customers." (Jake McKee, LEGO)

Once LEGO realized it was their adult fans who were their biggest talkers (and biggest spenders), they reached out to these fans, supported existing communities, and turned around their business. At our last event, Ant's Eye View's Jake McKee offered a complete case study on how they did it.

3. "Find your voice and use measurement to refine it." (Brendan Hart, National Geographic)

Whether it's a baritone or an alto, Brendan says your voice is your critical first-point of contact with your audience. As a preview for his upcoming class on how to be awesome on Twitter and Facebook, Brendan shares some ideas on how to find this voice as well as how to use measurement to tweak it in our interview.

4. "Do special things for special audiences." (Matthew Guiste, Starbucks)

One of the biggest sparks of word of mouth is a feeling of having special, insider information. When Starbucks launched "Free Pastry Day," it decided to announce it exclusively through digital channels--and its word of mouth exploded. It was its single biggest traffic day ever across every digital channel. At our last event, Starbucks' Matthew Guiste talked about this and more in his case study.

5. "It's not about your product, it's about what you do with your product." (Geno Church, Fiskars)

Fiskars has an amazing fan community. The group generates 13 new product ideas a month, has significantly reduced advertising expenses, and has increased sales 300%--all for a 360-year-old brand. In our preview interview with Brains on Fire's Geno Church, he offered a bunch of great ideas on how they created this movement.

6. "Make love."  (Andy Sernovitz---that's me.)

You want to spread your ideas to the ends of the earth--but, unfortunately, good ideas don’t always get the recognition they deserve. If you want people talking about you, you need to make them fall in love--with you and your idea. Love makes people talk. In my Pecha Kucha presentation--which is a great preview of my upcoming keynote--I show you how to make love.


And if you like all those, you can meet them live at Word of Mouth Supergenius on July 20 in New York.