There is Far More to Social Media Than Just Facebook and Twitter
August 3, 2012 By 9 Comments

There is Far More to Social Media Than Just Facebook and Twitter

Jay Baer of Convince & Convert just announced a great new piece of research is heading our way – The Social Habit. Brand research maven Susan Baier is involved, so I know it will be a winner. The teaser Jay posted fired up my brain, so I had to post some thoughts of my own…

Facebook is great! Pinterest is fun! Twitter is insanely fantastic for reaching/pitching journalists! LinkedIn is the place to be for networking! I think we all agree the top four social media sites have value. But what we DON’T think about often enough is the big picture of social media. It is so much more than the sites that everyone is focused on. If it encourages conversation, it’s social.

Social Media ROI

Marketing is all about ROI – what sells product, brings eyeballs to your product/service, what retains customers. The industry touts great statistics and impressive numbers about how Facebook is so wonderful, but I don’t think it is all that honest. Does it bring new business in the door? Or is it just an effective retention/loyalty tool… That gets my vote.

So what DOES bring new business in the door?

If you are a retailer, it’s reviews. Customer reviews. Yet how many companies put a premium on referral programs, and encouraging customers to post reviews? FAR TOO FEW.

As outlined so well in Google’s Zero Moment of Truth whitepaper, most consumers do quite a bit of online sleuthing before they buy. They want to read reviews and ratings – what other people think about the product, and the experiences they’ve had.

It’s an integral part of the customer purchase decision, and what’s more social than people talking about what they buy?

Google reviews, yelp, Amazon, Williams-Sonoma, Barnes & Noble – virtually EVERY SINGLE major retail website invites customer reviews.

Yet how few companies actually invite their customers to post reviews, or ask for them in any way? It’s crazy to ignore it, when it is so easy. And so valuable!

IT’S ALL ABOUT ONE LITTLE WORD. “ASK.”

If you put a little creativity towards how you can encourage customers to post online reviews, they happen. Just ask. How easy is it to offer a small discount to anyone that posts a review? Or to simply thank those who do? Or to showcase them on your Facebook page and share a little love right back?

So marketing professionals and agencies, I challenge you to put those thinking caps on and fire up your brains. What can YOU do – right now, today – to build up online reviews for your business or clients?

 

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About Carrie Morgan

Digital PR, social media, search and content marketing consultant. 20+ yrs of agency/corporate experience. Author. Blogger for Convince & Convert, MarketingProfs, PR Daily & Social Media Today. Founder of #PRprochat.

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  • https://www.twitter.com/steve_dodd steve dodd

    Hi Carrie, thanks for expanding on this thinking. It’s actually a very crucial discussion as brands try to better reach consumers through targeted advertising. I hope you don’t mind, but I also wanted to share this link to a new site discussing the value of forums and other “deep social web” topics.
    http://forumindustry.com/

    • http://rockthestatusquo.com Carrie Morgan

      Steve, can you elaborate a little on how you see forums being a valuable part of the social media mix?

      • https://www.twitter.com/steve_dodd steve dodd

        Sure. There are many millions of specialty forums and social communities woldwide where people discuss experiences about everything from products to travel to gaming to investing to medical issues and any other topic you can think of. Nobody knows for sure how many there really are but arguably the accumulated page views in forums is likely more than facebook, google or twitter.

        Why, because these are the places people end up researching specifics about topics of interest and gain valuable insights and advise from people like themselves. Most review sites even have forums “under the covers” where the reviews themselves actually get discussed.

        And, many companies have forums (or social communities) where customers talk amongst eachother about their thoughts on particular topics (Caterpillar being one of my favorite examples).

        This is where social media began long before blogging and today’s popular social networks. And, the domain is growing as fast as there are people wanting to gain insights from other people about specific things they are thinking about at any point in time.

        Does this help?

  • http://www.jaybaer.com Jay Baer

    Great stuff Carrie. Thanks for the kind words. I’m a big ZMOT fan, in fact will be including a whole section on it in my next book.

    • http://rockthestatusquo.com Carrie Morgan

      Thanks, Jay! I agree – like most “reports,” there are things to love and things that, well… not so much. A little in their self-interest, but some golden nuggets are scattered in there if you look. Can’t WAIT to hear what you think. =)