Social Media is Word of Mouth online

One of the roles of a marketeer must do is to keep up to date and spot forthcoming trends and although we weren’t too sure if social media was for us initially we could see that it was going to be a key tool for the future. We wanted to know more about it so we could evaluate and see whether it would be an effective tool that clients could use. We went on a course and read a couple of books on social media and immediately knew that this tool was not just hype but would bring business to our clients and we have been helping people start on their social media journey ever since.

However we have got used to the fact that not everyone shares our enthusiasm for the medium. Questions include what benefits will it bring them? Why should they use it when social media is for young people and their clients are in the older category. This article is focusing on the benefits but the age argument is simply not true. The growth in social media particularly Facebook and Twitter is in the 35 plus market. Just look at Google social media demographics and you will find lots of articles that will show this.

So what are the benefits of social media to business? Well don’t just take our word for it, lots of people are recommending social media for small business. This includes David Moyes lecturer in marketing for the University of the West of Scotland who in a recent workshop said that social media offers small and medium sized business huge opportunities to promote themselves and get their message out in a targeted and cost effective way. So what are some of the benefits?

Firstly it is FREE. Any business can set up a Facebook business page or a Twitter page and get started on their social media journey. We would recommend that you do a course or ask a company like Bright Light Marketing to start you on your journey with tips and recommendations taking you through the process so you are ready to fly solo as it were. All it takes is time and some effort to join in the conversation and you have a cost-effective and if you do it right targeted way of promoting your business. That should get any small business to sign up straight away it certainly is a major reason why we are so keen to recommend it.

Another benefit of social media is that it will draw traffic to your website and if you are targeted in how you set this up these visitors will be people who you want to become potential customers so you want to draw them to your website. Search engines like Google love companies who use social media and it will increase your rankings on search engines thereby again drawing people to your website. A great example of this is a recent retweet by Stephen Fry for the Scottish Book Awards generated over 5000% increase in visits to the website, within an hour of the tweet going out.

So two key benefits of using social media are that it is free to use and it will draw traffic to your website. A marketing tool that is effective, targeted, will draw traffic to your website and is free? Makes it fairly unique doesn't it? Word of mouth is and will always be the best way to get people to buy from you but you could argue that social media has the potential to be a close second.

Why? Well actually social media is word of mouth online and is all about conversation which is why it is an effective marketing tool. So let us give you some examples.

Holidays? Your business is in tourism and people are talking about holidays on social media channels. Fiona Drane recently booked a holiday. She wanted to go to the West Coast of Scotland the property (self catering) had to be fairly large, be pet friendly with preferably a view of the sea and access to a beach. Google brought up various options and Kintyre came up as a good option. Next step Fiona mentioned this on Twitter and asked people's opinions and got lots of feedback on the area. The Google search was then continued but failed to come up with suitable accommodation websites. So Fiona tweeted again asking for accommodation websites and was sent various website options from Twitter followers. One of the sites had the ideal house, right size, pet friendly, sea view, proximity to a beach and the right price. All thanks to Twitter. People are having conversations about holidays and if you are a tourism business you want to be part of it.

Equally if you are a retailer people are having conversations about what they are reading, eating and buying. We have recently bought two business books as a result of recommendations on Twitter and have bought fiction books on the back of a local bookshop tweeting that they have various books now in stock. Twitter is ideal to promote local events and festivals and Bright Light Marketing has worked with clients to do so and can also see from recent research carried out for the Borders Book Festival the benefits social media brings to events not just in raising awareness but in actual bookings. We have worked with a local retailer who has found that people come into their shop to buy shoes that have been promoted on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook in particular is a great way of showing photographs of stock and encouraging people to buy. As well as another opportunity to speak to your customers and let your customers speak to each other. The mail order catalogue Boden is a good example of how this works or for a tourism business look at The Hideaway Experience or Lochcarron on Facebook. Bright Light Marketing have also worked with food retailers both mail order and high street retailers who have found that social media sells their product. One even said that he could see that Twitter had caused a significant rise in mail order sales.

So social media is ideal for tourism businesses, retailers, food and drink and many other companies. Perhaps like Bright Light Marketing you are a professional service company and feel that social media may work for your clients and not for you? Why? People are talking about who to use for an accountant, lawyer, vet, architect you name it. And you won't get any business if you are not using social media. And if you do nothing as a professional service business you should use LinkedIn as an extension of your networking.

But whether it’s Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn you are using please make sure that you don’t just start your journey but that you continue it. Social media is word of mouth online, it is conversation. It is FREE and it will bring you not only traffic to your website but also business. But you don’t get word of mouth overnight you have to work on it and it is exactly the same with social media. You have to work at it but if you do you will see the benefits it can bring to your business.

For more information on how Bright Light Marketing can get you started or help you with your social media requirements contact Fiona Drane on 01750 505053 or email fiona.drane@brightlightmarketing.co.uk.
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