Social Media Vs. Word of Mouth: Can It Be Both?
Here’s an interesting social experiment for you—ask any small business how they built a solid customer base, and I’ll bet most of them will mention word of mouth. Sure, they probably did conventional forms of advertising in several types of media, and they probably saw a lot of success from those advertising efforts. But they still consider word of mouth to be a pretty influential part of their company’s success. Some people might even think that this means they don’t need a social media presence.
But what people don’t realize is that social media is word of mouth—and it expands the influence a person’s word of mouth has in a much bigger way. Social media isn’t intended to be a replacement for word of mouth, and word of mouth shouldn’t be an excuse to avoid social media. When you take a conversation from an in-person interaction to a virtual forum, you are making that word of mouth public in a big, big way.
If you’ve found yourself subscribing to this thought process (or if you’ve talked to somebody who has this view) here are a few points you should consider…
Social Media Amplifies Your Reach
Let’s take your business owner hat off for a quick second and look at things from a customer perspective. If you truly love a business and the product or service they sell, you might tell your friends and family. Depending on how much you have to say (or how many people are asking), you could tell everyone you see or you might just mention it when the subject comes up. But even if we’re assuming you’re as vocal as a person can be, how many people are you really seeing in your daily life? Maybe 10 or 20—even 30 or 40 if you’re extremely social.
But even if you’re telling everyone from your best friend to the secretary at your kid’s school, you won’t be reaching as many people as you would if you were posting about it on social media. When you get on your social media platform of choice and post about how great a business is, many of your followers will see that (and maybe even some people who aren’t following you will see it, too). All of a sudden, word of mouth is no longer getting the message to 20 or 30 people—it’s getting the message to hundreds or even thousands of people.
As a business owner, you should be encouraging people to talk about you on social media. But if you have no presence on any platform, it’s much harder for you to be the center of the conversation. Even if you just have a page that people can tag in their posts makes a huge difference.
Social Media Is Seen As More Trustworthy Than Advertising
Have you ever seen an advertisement and just felt as if it made a bunch of false promises to you? It hyped up a product or service in a way that it could never actually meet expectations. This is why so many people trust word of mouth in all its different formats, whether it’s an in-person discussion or social media buzz. When your friend tells you that a business is great and what they love about the business, you inherently see this as much more trustworthy than a traditional advertisement. A marketing team will say anything, but your friend will tell you the truth.
This is why so many businesses collect testimonials. It’s also why influencer advertising is so powerful. And before you roll your eyes at the word “influencer,” remember that most of these people have a huge following on social media because people trust their opinions about the products or services they use in their everyday life. And businesses give them discounts or freebies in exchange for their honest opinion. No business wants a person spreading fake praise about them on social media, no matter how flattering it might be—they want that raw, honest feedback that will demonstrate exactly what they have to offer. And they want that because it’s what consumers trust.
Everyone's An Influencer To Somebody (And Probably Has More Influence Than They Think)
Now here’s the thing to keep in mind: Everyone has an influence on social media. Seriously. When your customer posts about your business to their social media page and tags your business in the post, their friends and family will take what they say seriously. They’re probably even connected with many people who fall within their demographic and therefore fit your target audience—stay-at-home moms are friends with many other stay-at-home moms, and artists are friends with artists, and teachers are friends with other teachers, and so forth.
In fact, many people will trust the opinions of their close friends more than they will trust the opinions of a quote-unquote “professional influencer.” I don’t know about you, but I’d take recommendations from my best friend over a recommendation from the Kardashians any day of the week.
You Should Be Encouraging People to Talk About You on Social Media
So how do you actually get that word of mouth to migrate over to social media? Sometimes you need to instigate it yourself. Maintain an active social media presence so you are frequently exposed to people. When they see one of your pictures or posts show up in their feed, they might be more inclined to comment about the positive experience they had. Then that comment shows up to not only all of your followers but also all of theirs!
Don’t be too shy to ask for testimonials or shoutouts. Ask people about their experience. Solicit feedback. Most people will be more than happy to speak up. And if anybody says anything negative, this is a chance for you to address the issue and publicly make it right.