Your company needs to buy a new accounting system. Assuming there is sufficient money allocated for the system, which is the bigger influence on which system you purchase: the price, the features or what people are saying about it? Over 55 percent of the respondents to this question stated that the biggest influence was what other people were saying.
On a more personal note, suppose you are trying to decide on which new restaurant to go to and some of your friends tell you that restaurant A has really good food but is more expensive than restaurant B which has really poor food but is significantly less expensive. You might decide not to go to either restaurant, but few people would go to restaurant B despite its less expensive cost.
In both instances involving business and personal decisions, the deciding factor was not price but word of mouth. Obviously this isn”™t always the case, particularly if you personally know about the particular entity or if the price is too good or too bad to be ignored. Yet, even in this instance, word of mouth can still be an important consideration.
Word-of-mouth selling and reputation management are two of the rapidly emerging aspects of social media. They can greatly facilitate or significantly hurt both sales and marketing efforts. I have witnessed how both companies and professionals such as doctors and dentists have been impacted by negative reviews ”“ most of which were unfair. The solution to this ”“ which I will discuss in further detail in a future article ”“ is to develop a rapid and appropriate response to counter this negativity.
Here are some of the positive ways social media can help your business:
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Ӣ Engage customers in a two-way flow of information
Develop multiple touchpoints where you can interact with your customers. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are excellent platforms for maintaining ongoing communications ”“ provided you maintain a consistent presence. Since over 53 percent of social users utilize social media to provide feedback to a brand or retailer, these communications are becoming increasingly crucial. Additionally, a large percentage of social media users also discuss products and services amongst themselves. (This percentage varies enormously depending on the market ”“ sales and product specials have a high percentage of communication while travel has a low percentage). This communication stream between social users indirectly extends the reach of a company”™s communications to users who it hasn”™t directly communicated with, thereby greatly increasing its reach and potential potency.
Ӣ Use live chat or text messaging
These activities depend on your audience. If you are dealing with millennials who spend an inordinate amount of time texting, it might be an area you should utilize. It”™s estimated that by 2015, global traffic will increase to 8.7 trillion messages. That”™s a lot of messages.
Live chat on your website can also be a useful tool (assuming you have the requisite audience and manpower). The cost of a chat system is now very affordable and can significantly influence users perception of your offerings and company.
Ӣ Engage influencers
A tweet by a respected person with many loyal followers can drive much traffic (and business) in your direction. Going to one extreme, Kim Kardashian reportedly has a $10,000 fee to tweet about some product or service. (Supposedly, this even stunned Twitter). A much more effective and significantly less expensive (free) method is to find major influencers in your area and start to converse with them. If they like your content, they will tweet about it and even retweet some of your tweets.
Ӣ Consistency
Too often, people get frustrated by inconsistent responses from a company. Whether it”™s inconsistent messages from people in the same or different departments is irrelevant. What is relevant is that people get easily frustrated when they receive conflicting messages ”“ particularly on the Internet where they usually have very little patience and as a result will frequently cease doing business with that company. Particularly with social media and customer service, having one consistent message across all departments and employees will also enhance your brand image and following.
The growth of social media”™s influence continues to increase unabated. Almost overnight, it has become a key component of many company”™s marketing, sales and customer service budgets largely due to its ability to provide two-way communications between and within its client base. Most notably, these communications can significantly enhance the size of a company”™s client base and bottom line.
Bruce Newman is the vice president at The Productivity Institute L.L.C. in Carmel. He is also the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader. Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog. Bruce can be reached at bnewman@prodinst.com.
