Startup Guides > Word of Mouth Marketing and Social Media

Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) has always been a powerful way to influence business results and grow sales.

Why should Marketers care about WOMM?

If you could master what has been identified as the most valuable form of marketing - the one that consumers trust above all others and the one that is most likely to drive sales for your company - would you instead choose to ignore it or leave it to chance?

Why would you simply choose to sit back and hope conversations will just happen organically about your brand? If you want to win the marketing race, you need to unleash the power of word of mouth. Keep in mind that a good WOMM strategy is credible, social, repeatable, measurable and respectful.

Let's look at the facts: According to Nielsen, the vast majority of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising, and most marketing executives indicate that they believe word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing. However, few say they have mastered it.


If consumers value word of mouth and marketers believe it is effective, then why aren't marketers more focused on it?

The problem is that for the last few years, marketers have been focused on "collecting" instead of "connecting." In other words, brands are too caught up in collecting social media fans and they are forgetting to actually connect with them.

Marketers used to focus on the 4 P's. You probably had them drilled into your head as you pursued your marketing degree. Well, now marketers need to focus on the three E's: Engage, Equip, Empower. If you can master these, you can become the most beloved and talked about product in your category, which will ultimately lead to increased sales. We've seen a good WOMM campaign generate thousands of conversations, recommendations and triple sales in just a year.

Let's look at the Three E's in more detail?

ENGAGE - Give your fans the gift of you. Engage with them. Listen to what they are telling you. Be part of the conversation about your brand. Be a presence in your fans' lives. If people are not talking about you, they are forgetting about you.

EQUIP - Give them reasons to talk. It can be amazing products, great service, insider knowledge, social elevation, incredible stories, unbelievable facts or even funny disclosures. It's on you. It really depends on you understanding your consumers and what they like about you and providing whatever it is they need from you. Apple revolutionizes technological devices and delivers amazing products to its consumers, allowing them to naturally raze about the newest iPhone. Another area to excel in and that's on the rise is social customer service.

EMPOWER - Give consumers different ways to talk and share. Let them know that they are important to you and that sharing their opinions is important to you. Help them find ways to share within their circles and find ways to help move their conversations around. You are right. It has been around, well, since cavemen roamed the earth. It's likely that one caveman told another about a popular hunting area (... and so on and so on) and ultimately that turned the site into the most popular hunting area in their cave community.

It worked then, and it will work now. However, technology has increased social connectivity making it easier than ever for consumers to do your marketing for you. A post that takes just a few minutes for a fan to write will be seen by hundreds of friends who trust them, and it can rapidly travel out to thousands more. Very well planned messages have been shared by millions within the span of days. Fueling conversations and driving passion will make a huge difference for your brand.

To complement word of mouth marketing, you can use online social media sites such as 40Billion.com, which specializes in promotion of small businesses by broadcasting and promoting messages to its large network of several million users across the most popular social networking sites for small businesses - including Twitter, LinkedIn, 40Billion, and even Facebook. Innovative services like promoted profiles and promoted company listings were created for small entrepreneurs to spread the word to a growing, active network online.

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