The new word of mouth!

The word of mouth marketing is important for every business, for each happy customer you make you can steer down various new ones.

It’s an unpaid form of promotion in which satisfied customers tell other people how much they like a business, product or service.

Of all the advertising forms word of mouth is the most credible one, simply because a person puts their reputation on the line every time they make a recommendation and that person has nothing to gain but the appreciation of those who are listening.

Author Kimberly Whitler from Forbes magazine says

"Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM). Isn't this really the original social media platform? I grew up with the famous Faberge commercial that showed a woman who 'told 2 friends' about the product and how 'they told 2 friends ... and so on ... and so on'. Hasn't WOM always been a powerful way to influence business results?"

For example when I share my views about a particular place and recommend my friends and family to visit they have expectations regarding the place & if they do not receive what they have expected not only will they next time not listen to my suggestions they may even make others do the same.

Hence one thinks n number of times before sharing and shares only when they are fully satisfied & are your loyal customers.

Before the social media’s origin the word of mouth was limited. We used to share the information when we felt the need of it.

Now however we may not even realize it but are a part of this marketing & advertising form.

Have you ever thought when we tag ourselves at places via social media we are actually confirming with our audience, that we have visited the place. Further with the tags people do share their views via snaps.

Traditional word-of-mouth was often limited to someone asking a question, and someone replying one-on-one. In social media word-of-mouth no one has to ask a question, yet everyone can see the answer. A one-to-many effect.

People have always been talking about their experiences regarding products services & brands. With the social media in play the impact of word of mouth to mouth has evolved.

Few say:

In the past, marketers focused on the four P’s (Product, Price, Promotion, Place), but now there should be a new focus for marketers—the three E’s. Engage, Equip, Empower. The three E’s can lead your company to a great WOM marketing campaign and to be one of the most beloved and talked about brands.

In the social media age word-of-mouth can travel fast, very fast. The scale, speed and real-time nature of the social Web and the increased possibilities for people to share and express themselves play a crucial role in this.

Especially when the number of worldwide social media users is projected to grow from 2.1 billion last year to 2.5 billion by 2018.

Social media now plays almost as large a role in purchasing decisions as does TV, and 57% of consumers say they’re influenced to think more highly of business after seeing positive comments or praise online.

It is not just about sharing your status or sharing your pictures any more. It's more than that.

We can say 'The social Media as the Next Gen Word of Mouth'.

If we talk about numbers below are few statistics I found online:

As of July 2015, total worldwide population is 7.3 billion The internet has 3.17 billion users There are 2.3 billion active social media users 91% of retail brands use 2 or more social media channels Internet users have an average of 5.54 social media accounts Social media users have risen by 176 million in the last year 1 million new active mobile social users are added every day. That’s 12 each second Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp handle 60 billion messages a day