Aside from the marketing efforts of businesses and brands, word of mouth is pretty important. After all, that’s the point of good business products and services being marketing well. Get the word out to a number of people, and then when they favor those products, they will spread the word to friends and family. This way, more people who didn’t even see the advertising on television, magazines or the newspaper will know the brand and the brand products. This could lead to further conversion for the brand.
Word of mouth is a very powerful tool, but for the longest time, it’s been limited due to proximity. But because of the rise of the internet over the years, the effectiveness of word of mouth has grown considerably. More specifically, this rise is because of the popularity of a little online thing called social media. I’m sure a few of you folks have heard of it. Social media has allowed word of mouth to expand exponentially from your local area to across the internet.
Before social media, as I said before, advertisement was limited to television, magazine and newspaper ads, and of course, the limited word of mouth. This was the only way somebody would learn about a product or service. Ah yes, the suffering we had to do back then before social media made it easy for us to tell others about a product.
With the advent of social media, 92% of consumers now trust family and friends over advertiser (Source: WOMMapeida). This makes total sense. I would believe somebody I knew personally than what I saw in an ad, wouldn’t you? What’s funny is that people have gotten accustomed to seeking advice from people that they don’t even know who has a good credibility. After all, these strangers have really nothing to gain from lying about the product they’re talking up (unless they are getting a kick out of trolling unsuspecting people who don’t know any better).
Even thought word of mouth marketing has been around long before the internet, let alone social media, Katy Keim explores how social media has changed it in a dramatic way, and how brands need to change things up.
Marketing Land: Though People Trust Other Consumers Most, Brands Still Have A Role To Play