2010 Marketing Trends - Why Social?

John Vachalek - 3.7.2010 1:00 PM

In our Top 5 Marketing Trends for 2010 blog post last month, we named social marketing among the top 5 marketing trends for 2010.

Everyone hears about Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on a daily basis. However, most businesses are not making the connection between these tools and good old fashion word-of-mouth marketing, which has been a key to successful marketing for decades.

We all know that a word-of-mouth referral to our business is almost as good as a check in the bank.  This potential client will ask less questions, and the relationship will begin on a more personal level. In most cases, this person had a specific need, they asked a trusted resource (a friend or business colleague) who they should use, and this person referred you. After that, things are pretty easy.  All businesses understand this concept 100%, and would agree that this is the best way to grow their business. Let’s connect the dots between this and social marketing.

In 2010, social marketing IS your new word-of-mouth network. The only difference between this and traditional world-of-mouth promotion is, social marketing is far more dynamic. It is also able to reach thousands of people instead of just one at a time. 

Let’s say that you have a client who really appreciates your product, your level of service or how you helped them solve a problem. In the past, that person had to wait to tell friends about how wonderful you were until they saw one and other face-to-face and something related to this experience came up in the conversation. 

Today with tools like Yelp, Facebook and Twitter, any individual is able to tell their entire network (potentially thousands of people) about a great experience they have with your business simply by updating their status or submitting a review. This is a far more powerful medium to which all businesses need to pay close attention to, and a trend which will continue to pick up speed as more and more people adopt these tools. 

How to use this Information

• Know and understand that anyone can now post an opinion about your business and you should treat every business interaction accordingly. Provide great experiences for people to write about!!  What can you do during every business transaction that is worth someone writing about?  Do extraordinary things each day for your clients and this will translate into social media referrals.
• Engage your clients in the social media conversation so they know you are interested in them proactively promoting your business and all the great things you do.
• Actively manage your online reputation to determine what people are saying about your business and engage in this dialog to thank and respond to comments on a frequent basis.

If you would like to comment on this post, we would love to hear from you. Are you engaging in this trend? What have your experiences been? If you would like some help initiating an effective social media marketing program, please give us a call at Webolutions 1-800-657-6055 for a free initial consultation. 
 

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