Word of mouth is the best form of advertising. Hands down, every business owner will tell you that. The reason why word of mouth advertising is the best is because it is a referral. A person has a need and someone they know recommends a business that can fill that need. A recommendation from someone you trust weighs MUCH heavier than a print ad in a newspaper or a banner ad on a website.
When you start to think about how people interact these days, even grandmas and grandpas are on social media in one form or another. They have started to realize that it is a new place for them to connect and socialize with people that they would normally not be able to keep in touch with. Social media has helped keep more people connected than ever before.
As the use of social media changes and develops, we are seeing a trend where people ask their social media “friends” for advice when they have a need. Ask “What’s the best place to find a kiddy pool in Prince George?” and you’ll get several people answering based on what they know and what they’ve seen over time. So, a business that has got a brand awareness among a persons friends will be the business that gets recommended the most.
Social media is just another form of Word-of-Mouth.
So, what do we do about that? How can we harness it? The good news is that if you are a great business, you are already doing many of the important things that will get people to recommend you. You are already providing good customer service, great client support, a great product, or a valuable service. Moving that conversation to the social media world involves translating what you do, what you make, and how happy your clients are into a sharable and “tag-able” way online. Businesses need to make it easy for people to talk about them and have that conversation be linked to their online profile and website. Businesses also have to monitor social media in a minimal amount in order to join in on the conversation when there is a discussion about their brand, a service they provide, or a product they sell.
Tools for social media monitoring:
- Google Alerts
- Rignite
- Hootsuite
- Facebook Pages app – iOS or Android
- Zapier in conjunction with other services for advanced monitoring
Those are just a few. There are many more variations out there.