02/05/2010

Recognizing Customers as Best Social Marketing Resource

Small to medium sized businesses ("SMB") can and should leverage their customer base to effectively promote business at a low cost through social marketing. I love sharing this concept with SMB owners, many of whom are too busy to have their companies engaged at any level of social media. Some owners are not even engaged personally (i.e., Facebook with friends and family – the simple stuff), making the term 'social media' even more foreign. Once the conversation converges on where people go to inform purchase decisions or find service professionals – the web – these folks know they miss out by not having space on that virtual billboard.

I recognize three key tenets that make this concept viable, effective, and usually low cost:

People want to contribute: It's funny, but we do. Here are some talking points. . .

User generated content ("UGC") drives business (sales and development):

Here's that 'success' note – the right focus on social marketing is required for success


Plenty of opportunity to leverage the customer's voice: Here are some options. . .

What is key about these public sites is the placement, and sorting implications, of customer ratings and comments. That's the free, UGC that people like to give. And it is the free social marketing that SMBs can take advantage of. FYI, if you want to know which one's above you should focus on, try a quick evaluation using my previously mentioned framework.

With the above, free resources being used by SMB customers to find the best products or services based on ratings and comments – it's just a matter of these businesses engaging with their customers to ensure the SMB image is positive and proactive for driving traffic. If that sound's like a hard feat to accomplish, you'd be surprised at just how easy it is.

What do you think? Have you tried this successfully? Are you intrigued but less then optimistic?

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Feb 5, 2010 10:30:00 AM | Customer Engagement

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