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As a small business owner, you probably know that social media works—for building relationships, calling attention to your products or services, and getting more business. But, do you know why it works? Social media works so well because it takes something that was already working one step further. That something is word of mouth marketing.
The Power of Word of Mouth
Before Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—even before e-mail and the World Wide Web—one of the best ways companies got business was through word of mouth. If a business provided great products and an excellent customer experience, customers would tell their friends, who would then become customers, have similar experiences, and share the news with their friends.
This process worked so well that companies caught on and started to intentionally create “shareworthy” experiences, and to ask customers to tell others if they were satisfied with their service. Many strived to be the company everyone would want to recommend.
Initially, this word of mouth marketing was a one-to-one transaction, with customers telling friends about their experiences one at a time. With social media, customers have the opportunity to share such experiences in a one-to-many or even many-to-many format, which serves to increase the reach of small businesses exponentially.
The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing
Now there are millions of people out there talking online about different businesses. With social media, you can take steps to make your business more likely to be discussed. Here are a few examples of social media strategies you can use to take advantage of social media, otherwise known as “the next generation of word of mouth marketing”:
- Recognize that social media is not necessarily for making a sale every time someone reads an item you’ve posted. It’s for getting people familiar with you, connecting, and engaging at the next level, whatever that may be.
- Have a product, service, or program you want people to buy. While you don’t want to be overly “salesy” (see #1), you do want to take opportunities to let people know what you have to offer.
- Get on the right social media sites. That is, go where your customers and potential customers are. For more on knowing which social media sites are right for your business, read Social Media Sites: Which One’s Right for You?.
- Develop a winning social media strategy that helps you meet the unique goals of your business.
- Create content others will want to share. There are many types of information that social media users find interesting:
- Special offers
- Tips and tricks
- Your opinions about your industry or field
- News and announcements
- Community events
- Links to useful information
- Tidbits about your personal life (within reason)
Getting Started
If all of this sounds overwhelming, that’s understandable; social media can be time-consuming, especially at first. But, the rewards for your small business are worth it. To make the process more manageable, start your social media campaign one step at a time. Create one element of your social media plan each day, or sign up for just one service, and get a feel for it before joining more.
You can also get help! GetUsSocial can do all of the above for you, or help you get started on your own. GetUsSocial is an Internet marketing agency that empowers companies to leverage social media, especially Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ through resources, planning, and the implementation of social media marketing.
Whether you do it on your own or get help, the best thing you can do for your business is learn to leverage the next generation of word of mouth marketing!
Don’t forget to enter to win an iPad 2 when you Enter the GetUsSocial sweepstakes by September 30. If you like this post you may want to Like them while you’re there and follow @GetUsSocial on Twitter!
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Great ideas! We often forget how important word of mouth is in your marketing strategy.
I really agree with you about the internet as the modern word of mouth. Social Media is a place where people share ideas and thoughts about certain things. Thus the reason why it really work as a good medium for sharing your new thoughts and ideas. Many bloggers, usually resort to using social media as part of reaching people and promote your blog post.
Ruth Sayson would love you to read ..Should You Buy Solar Deck Lights?
Is their such a thing as word of mouth through the internet, interesting something I never expected. Something to make a lot of us internet users seat back and take a long hard for our business look at. I know I am.
Too many people are just sending our self promotional messages through Twitter which is why I try not to follow too many people, especially those that do exactly this. As you point out in this post, it is OK to tell people what you are selling or offering, but that needs to be blended with proper social media engagement, and back and forth communication with your followers so you can be a resource to them, and answers any questions they may have.
I totally agree with you. Social media is the new generations with regard to word of mouth marketing. There has been a lot of success in social media marketing. You just have to come up with a good strategy that will grabs the users attention.
The power of word of mouth is very nicely shared, many fantastic ideas you have provided, learnt many new things….
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It was the just like a Good will that every company wants to earn i think that was a good method
Thank you for the comment. I like the way you put it…Goodwill!
I believe that in today’s world the word of mouth marketing strategy will do much better than those strategies people are using nowadays. Due to large competition in every niche, businesses are spending more and more money to increase their online visibility. I have seen many such examples where hosting providers are paying to get a fake review on review websites. People are now realizing the fact that most of the sources from where good recommendations were expected are either fake or affiliated with the companies. Thus, I think the word of mouth marketing strategy will be much successful compare to others and help companies to gain potential clients and customers would be able to get “value for money” solutions. And of course, social media is one of the platforms that will increase the possibility of your business growth.
Thanks for the valuable POV. The companies employing un ethical practices have unfortunately been around in every paradigm but they hardly survive in the business. One of the very powerful aspect of Social Media is the fact that it promotes ‘Social Proof’ being the real driver of purchase decisions among consumers. 73% of people trust their friends opinions in making a buying decision. This is the ‘Word of Mouth’ in its best.
Social Media Marketing is the easiest way at the moment to go viral with anything and everything. If your product or website appeals to a small number of people and they share it to their friends on social networks and their friends share it with other friends and so on….you’ll have a viral website in no time. You just need to find that right something to promote.
Well said, Cristian…I would, however, add that it is extremely important to strike a balance between promotion and providing valuable insights on the Social Media platforms. People are not on the platforms to be ‘sold to’.Thanks for your comment.
Social Media plays a vital role for Word of Mouth Marketing. Social media is a King on internet that create market for all types of marketing services. Without social media online business is zero.
Thanks for the comment, I couldn’t agree more.
I was thinking the next generation of word of mouth might be something like putting a decal or sticker in your car window with your web site address. I thought about making a t-shirt with a web site too. And, I don’t know if it is allowed or not, but putting it on a car license plate. All free or very cheap advertising. I don’t know how much traffic one would see from it though.
Ray would love you to read ..Jonah and the Whale
Thanks Ray…I should perhaps run and get ‘The Next Generation Word of Mouth’ registered because it’s my company’s tag line and we are the 1st company heavily using it. 😉
Social Media Marketing is simply the latest form of word of mouth marketing. We are all influenced by other peoples opinions, especially those who are close to us (our friends and relatives) and have used the product or service that is being referred to. It’s a relationship based on trust – we trust their judgement, which makes our decision to buy much easier. Long live word of mouth – in whatever form it appears!
I could not agree more…The only difference between the traditional ‘Word of Mouth’ and the Next Generation ‘Word of Mouth’ is one-to-one to one-to-many transformation we are seeing due to social media’s powerful amplification capability.
Many people still start up businesses by selling to friends and family, making use of the word of mouth marketing to get new clients. This is the poor man’s method if you don’t have money to advertise.
But off course when you get online and access social networks, it becomes easy to see the huge potential and ease of use, even if you do have money for paid advertise.
Maria would love you to read ..How To Become A CNA Instructor
Thank you, Maria. It is a valuable point that you’re bringing up that I have not really thought about.
Using word of mouth marketing has worked well for me for quite a long time now. It’s all about not focusing just on making sales; try to focus on providing useful information, tips, and little freebies every now and then and you can’t go wrong!
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Thanks Sandra…I have chosen the next generation of ‘Word of Mouth’ for our company tagline because I truly believe that social media plays a strong amplifier to the best marketing vehicle of all times ‘Word of Mouth’, taking from one-to-one to one-to-many without any sales tactics.
Social networking is a great way to market any services but mouth marketing can also be a better option to have it for any business.
Word of Mouth marketing has been a proven and the most effective and economical marketing for ages. What social media allows us to do is to take this traditional one-to-one marketing to a one-to-many with the same effort.
Done the right way, social media can be incredibly efficient and provide just the right amount of personal connection.
Thanks, Robert. I agree that it needs to be done right. It is a fundamental shift in the way we communicate with our current as well as potential customers without really trying to sell our products/services.
word of mouth marketing is viral. customers are the unimpeachable sources for information regarding the one’s products or services. hence, customer’s satisfaction is a must. But of course, we are now in the modern era, social networking sites are one of the best tools for word of mouth marketing
Thank you for your insights…You might enjoy an article that we have on our blog a few weeks back ‘Customer Loyalty and Net Promoter Score’.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ through resources, planning, and the implementation of social media marketing.this is sounds great i hope i can share this to all my friends.
Danniella would love you to read ..similar games like angry birds
Thank you Daniella. We try to offer a Pain-Free Service knowing that small businesses owners don’t have time to run their businesses effectively and get involved in social media marketing for their companies…Social Media Marketing is 24X7 job if you want to do it right.
I agree social media marketing takes a huge amount of time if you are trying to stay on top of them all and can get a bit overwhelming if you are a one man team managing several websites.
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Hi there. Thanks for sharing this. It’s very interesting.
Andrew Walker would love you to read ..CellularOutfitter Coupon Code
Hi Andrew,
Most bloggers will delete short comments like yours. When you comment in blogs make your comments about the post and they’re more likely to get approved. See my blog commenting tips for more suggestions.
Take advantage of KeywordLuv in blogs that offer it to create anchor text that links keyword phrases that are important to you instead of your name. See my post on How to Use KeywordLuv. I added anchor text to your comment above so you can see what I mean.
growmap would love you to read ..Social Media: Why You MUST Specialize
I didn’t try this one but I’m trying to do so. Can you elaborate much on how can I start? I really thinking that there’s a very big risk in putting a business in social media, because I didn’t know that if my product can really compete the market.
Jonathan would love you to read ..How To T-spin
Hi Jonathan,
The short answer to that is social media is about relationships. People buy from those they know and trust. Interacting sincerely with your potential customers gives you an advantage in any market.
growmap would love you to read ..Social Media: Why You MUST Specialize
Thanks for the reply and suggestion. I will try no manage it to my friend in social media. This time I will just put a little to try and if it will work I make it double.
Jonathan would love you to read ..Hello Adventure
Hi Jonathan, I think @GrowMap has answered your question nicely and if I may add one thing to it, if you are not where your customers are, you are really not in a position to tune in and understand what they are really looking for. By the way, your competitors around the corner might be on social media which means you’re missing on the opportunity for growth.
Thanks…I’d definitely read Computer Magento Theme.