Using Social Media To Increase Word Of Mouth
Reputation and word of mouth (WOM) can make or break a business. This is because people trust unbiased opinions coming from family, friends and society over paid promotions and advertisements.
Social media can act as an online epitome of people sharing opinions. We’ve all got a handful or more of Facebook friends who love to share critical movie reviews or expose fast-food restaurants.
It is expected that by 2020, the majority of purchase decisions will be based on customer experiences and WOM. This means that brands will need to offer the best for customers and build their reputation in order to survive, more so than ever before.
Customers carry around their expectations. When a brand exceeds a customer’s expectation, the customer becomes a volunteer marketer... people get excited, and they share the good news!
But what triggers customers to talk? A positive, unique experience. The same is lame and consumers won’t bat an eyelid if a company just tries to jump on the bandwagon.
Today, 50% of talk triggers occur online. To be involved in the conversation, it’s important for brands to create stories, and choose to do something different.
Three key ways to use social media to boost word of mouth are to:
Find what people are talking about. Talk triggers will be located in #hashtags and reviews.
Measure talk triggers.
Promote talk triggers.
So ... what makes something a ‘talk trigger’? A talk trigger should be:
Remarkable- different enough to be noticed.
Repeatable- treat customers with consistency, surprise and delight.
Reasonable- good customer experiences that are realistic.
Relevant- be relevant and empathetic.
Don’t be afraid even in an upset customer’s voice. Keep your haters engaged. At the end of the day, customers trust each other more than they trust marketing. This means that companies just trying to pump up their own tires won’t work. People want to hear from other people.
Dare to be different. Create conversation.