Word of Mouth Marketing in the Context of Social Media
Social Word of Mouth- Isn’t Word of Mouth Marketing the most basic, original type of social media platform? We’ve all seen those old-school ads on the TV where a girl goes to a few of her friend telling them about “this amazing” product she found in the local shop. The girls immediately go ahead, trusting their friend, and purchasing the product blindly.
Obviously, this is an old-fashioned model, right? But is it really? Aren’t the reviews and the feedback that we give on different social channel the exact same thing in a modern wrap? In fact, social feedback and reviews are pretty much the contemporary word of mouth marketing in the era of social media.
Why Should You Care About Social Word of Mouth?
It’s an unspoken rule of marketing that the power of social word of mouth is incomparable to any other form of marketing known to us. This is by far the most valuable tool in your set. Customers trust customers – that’s just it. Regardless of whether you are selling a service, a produce or an experience, there is nothing as powerful as the word of mouth marketing.
Contemporary Issues
The world of marketing is changing, right? In fact, it’s so dynamic that it is hard enough to keep track and to adapt to all the alterations.
That’s a common phenomenon that we observe regularly. The problem for the last few years, and that’s a problem that a lot of marketers are facing, is that they are focusing on collection instead of on connection.
In other words, people are caught up, trying to gather as many social media fans or as much traffic as they can instead of trying to connect with them. Imagine your business having 1,000 followers, all of which have expressed some general, rather slight interest in what you have to offer. Now imagine yourself in a position in which you have 100 followers, all of which came to you because they trusted the recommendation of someone else. Instead of having to earn their trust from scratch, you’d only have to retain it – they already trust you because of social word of mouth marketing.
What’s the Solution?
There is one very commonly referred to marketing formulation which is regarded as the “Three E’s”. They stand for Engage, Equip, and Empower. To earn the trust of your customer through word of mouth marketing, you have to engage with your audience. To get yourself in a position to profit, you’d have to equip them with what you have to offer. To retain their trust and to provide them with value, you have to empower them through the equipment.
There is quite a lot that could be said about the word of mouth marketing in the context of modern day social media. What marketers need to understand is that building trust and connections is more important than getting user base of slightly interested customers. This is especially true if you are just starting out.