Facebook, blogs, Twitter and customer reviews are considered the most effective tactics for mobilizing consumers to talk up products online. (Etailing survey of 117 companies, September 2009)

90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users. (Econsultancy, July 2009)

Between 10% and 24% of US social media users turned to social networks when making purchase decisions about various categories of products and services. (eMarketer, October 2009)

Consumers are becoming more sophisticated in buying decisions and are researching products and retailers before ever leaving their house to walk through the doors of your store.  Consider your own Website – is it a static site that primarily communicates your location, phone number, and maybe your store hours?  Or is it a rich, engaging site that encourages foot traffic to your store and rewards customer loyalty?  If you fall into the first category, the bad news is that so do many of your peers.  The good news is that you have a wonderful opportunity to improve your customer engagement and increase your online word-of-mouth marketing with social media. As with any type of marketing, do your research and create a plan before diving in.  Once you’ve confirmed where your customers spend their time online (and therefore, where you should be), consider these ideas as you develop your plan:

  • Show personality.  How do you greet and talk with customers in your store or on the phone?  Use that same personality in your social media to keep a consistent image.  If you don’t, you risk your customers thinking you are not authentic.  There are not a lot of established rules in social media, but being authentic is definitely one of them.
  • Ask customers for testimonials.  Word of mouth marketing goes a long way in influencing buying decisions.  Ask some of your customers if they would be willing to post an honest, authentic review or testimonial of your store or product.  Some stores entice customers to do this by offering a discount or other promotion in exchange for the testimonial.  We don’t consider this a ‘best practice.’  Put yourself in your new customers’ shoes – you read some great testimonials and decided to check out a new store.  Then, you find out that people were compensated for those testimonials.  Most people would feel misled and deceived, leading to negative word of mouth marketing for you. 
  • Create “fan/follower only” specials or events.  Take the time to recognize and appreciate the people who engage with you online, offline.  Advertise limited time fan/follower only discounts or coupon codes.  Create special shopping hours or host a private reception for fans/followers.  Host a “Fan + Friend” event and ask your fans to bring a friend with them.  The possibilities are endless – get creative!
  • Listen for mentions.  There are many tools available (most for free) to help you listen for mentions of your brand or name.  Use these!  If people are talking about your brand or store, you want to know about it.  If the conversation is positive, make a note of why it is positive and continue to focus on it.  If you want to thank someone for a positive note or review, be sincere and succinct.  Use it simply as an opportunity to say “thank you” and not an opportunity to push out another marketing message.  On the flip side, if the conversation is negative, learn from it and improve.  If you choose to join a negative conversation, be careful about attempting to defend yourself because it will come across exactly that way.  Instead, be sincere, offer an apology, and ask for a second chance.  Remember, the customer is always right (even if the customer is wrong!). 
  • Share content related to your market and/or merchandise.  If new moms are your market, post or share content about baby-care basics or buying for baby.  If you sell clothes for teens, share articles about trends for next season.  If you run a hardware store, post do-it-yourself instructions for common home projects.   Sharing content relevant to your audience builds your credibility and may help you generate repeat traffic to your site, giving you more opportunities to market your business.

Keep in mind that your social media efforts need to be continuous for best results.  This does not mean that you should start spending hours each day on social media.  It does mean that you need to be consistent in your efforts to keep your audience engaged and looking for new content.  When developing your plan, be realistic about how much time you have to devote to social media marketing.  If you only have 15 minutes per day, then create a plan that will work with 15 minutes per day.  To stay committed to your plan, make sure you build in milestone measurements so you can evaluate what is and is not working and make adjustments as needed.

[Image courtesy of Bubbels]