The percentage of the world’s total internet users who use social media has risen from 8% in 2005 to 72% in 2013. This has helped to open up a new platform for companies to communicate their services and products and has been proven in cases to be pivotal to a brands marketing tact. Social media allows brands to convey their ‘personality’ or provide additional customer service; it has been shown that a huge 81% of US consumers are influenced by friend’s social media posts – what is known as ‘Word of Mouth’ marketing.
Geno Church, author of the marketing strategy book ‘Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements’, gives three points that he believes are pivotal to engaging with customers through social media:
· Functional: People engage in functional conversations about brands to get information needed to make decisions and to better interpret the world around them.
· Social: People engage in social conversations about brands to impress others, to express uniqueness and to increase their reputation.
· Emotional: Brands that invoke strong emotional feelings are more likely to be talked about. Make sure your brand is evoking a strong emotional trigger. It hits home the most.
The new found platform for interaction between customers and brands through social media has allowed companies to make use of the opportunity to create conversation about the brand. Here are some of the top companies to have implemented word of mouth in this way.
