It All Begins With Word-of-Mouth
We live in a time where one Facebook post can have the same impact as a front-page newspaper ad, and a mention from a well-followed Twitter account can produce the same impressions as a full-blown celebrity endorsement. Sure, the channels for conversations have undergone a major makeover in the last few centuries, but the sentiment is the same. If your company is doing a good job, then your customers won’t be shy about spreading the good news. Modern marketing outreach may be trending toward a multi-platform model, but before there were ads, endorsements, and sponsored posts, there was word-of-mouth.
That’s right – satisfied customers began sharing useful recommendations to friends, family members, and neighbors well before it was possible to perform these tasks with the click of a button. Today’s most popular social platforms build on the principle of sharing enticing messages with select members of a given audience. Try as you might, your big brand just can’t mimic the conversations that occur on a customer-to-customer level. Your customers have the power to spread the word more organically and effectively than traditional marketing outreach. Encouraging conversations about your brand from influential members of your network may sound like a no-brainer, but the real challenge comes from transforming these interactions into earned media opportunities…
