So how do we get people to talk about our brand? Facilitate conversations in social media.

In a presentation entitled “All Earned Media is Not Created Equal: Winning Hearts, Minds and Wallets via Experience-Driven Social Marketing“, the argument was successfully made that personal experience does create more powerful social marketing. We know, from studies done by consulting firms like Keller Fay that WOM conversations driven by personal experience increases likelihood to purchase.

So, let’s think about that a bit. We want to get people to talk about our brands. Great. We get them to retweet or get them to Like our Facebook Page. Those activities are great, but the vitriol of a bad Yelp review is enough to explain how a bad or good personal experience can drive even more powerful social marketing and influence purchase behavior.

What that example says to me is that it’s pretty important to focus on activating and faciliatating social WOM at both point-of-purchase and post-purchase. Let’s allow the actual users of our products and services tell our story. WOM driven by personal experience carries great value to potential new customers. It carries the weight of advocacy, and it also bears a relationship with customer retention.

So, how can we activate WOM by those that have experienced our services? Give your buyers the opportunity to tell their social networks that they purchased your amazing new widget. Here are a few ways:

• Set up social check-out
• Send a follow up email with a request for reviewing or rating your product or customer service
• Send a follow-up survey
• Ask buyers to let others know what they think about your product and give them a coupon or special discount to share with their friends
• If you think you have enough advocates, develop a campaign for buyers to submit photos or videos of themselves using the product.
• Make sure you’re on Yelp and Travelocity and other reivew sites and thank and respond to customers when they provide feedback – both good and bad.

When you provide channels for buyers and customers to create WOM based on personal experience, you’re creating the most powerful marketing possible.

Have you made experience-driven social marketing a priority?

Well, at least one way we know those conversations are valuable is by understanding that WOM influence on purchasing is growing. The pendulum of who consumers listen to for advice on what products to buy, continues to move away from companies themselves and more and more towards WOM from friends, family and other consumers. That trend is not reversing. If someone said to you that your buyers don’t care what you have to say about your widgets, but they really care about what others say about your widgets, wouldn’t you want, dare I say, feel responsible, to generate conversation about your widgets by facilitating and activating engaged conversations?

If we accept that this pendulum isn’t reversing, and that the trajectory and the value of WOM is only increasing, then it makes sense to invest in social engagement because we’ve already established the future value, we just need to measure that value and grow it. And the raison d’être for EngageSciences and other Social Marketing Management Software like HubSpot and Wildfire, just to name a few, is to provide tools that assist companies and brands better “activate”and generate that highly valued WOM engagement as well as place a monetary value on it.

Certainly, one outcome of the growing value of WOM is that websites will evolve into a more social place. The suggestion was made that ”social content is the future of websites” and that websites won’t look like they do today with perhaps FB and Twitter feeds, but instead be a site where curated content from fans or followers talking about your business will actually make up the dynamic fabric of your site.  To keep pace with the need for WOM content, companies need to get to work today to build the foundations of their communites.

And if the future expectation as the pendulum continues to swing is that the consumer voice is the only one that matters, we all need to be prepared to facilitate bringing that voice to the forefront for our brands.

Why should businesses invest their hard earned money in social? Well, let me first say that you do get out of social what you put into it. You may not quadruple your sales, but you’ll get a return in other ways. Just remember the age old analogy of going to the gym. If you work out hard, you’ll feel great. If you mope around the gym, you probably will feel like “exercising” was a waste of time.

Here are five things a small business should know about investing in social media marketing.

1. Social gives you the ability to reach your audience
According to eMarketer, by 2013 60% of US internet users will use Facebook. Your target market is on social. No doubt about it. And with tools like Facebook Ads and Twitter Ads, you’ll be able to reach them.

2. Social can brand your business
My anti-American Italian teacher in college used to say, “Why when Americans come to Italy, they go to McDonald’s?” Well, we know they do because people like the familiar – in food, in people and products. If you’re effectively communicating your brand via social media content – whether it’s dependability or convenience, or expertise, your fans and followers will take it in and begin to feel comfortable with you. And when the time comes to purchase the product or service you’re providing, they’ll check you out. Your pricing and delivery and customer service has to close the deal, but the brand you’ve been building on social will pay off as a micro-conversion to get them to your door or product page.

3. Social keeps you competitive
Some people say you shouldn’t have a Facebook Page, just because your competition does. Well, I disagree. Of course you should!  Your page just has to be better!

4. Social will give you credibility (if you’re doing it well)
Go to a website for a business you’ve never heard of? Then go to their Facebook Page and see a high number of engaged fans? That’s immediate credibility.

5. Social supports other marketing
I recently posted a blog by Brian Solis, the well-respected social media evangelist who wants to educate businesses into getting into social before they’re too behind the curve. The theme of the blog focuses on, in Solis’ words, the hypothesis that “the game is moving away from metrics that measure clicks and eyeballs to click paths that deliver intended experiences and outcomes.” As a social media marketer, I can show an increase in fans, increase in mentions and likes and comments and those are important. But what we really want to do is to look at those numbers in terms of how effectively they create a path and drive traffic to the other elements of our business we want them to visit, such as the blog, website, email signups and product pages.

In Conclusion: You will get a return on your investment in social media marketing. You just have to have a clear expectation of what that return is going to be.

Skittles’ tagline is “Taste the Rainbow” and they’ve translated their quirky optimistic brand into a highly focused and successful Facebook presence.

What I like most about their page, and what compelled me to actually write a blog post about it is the SIMPLICITY of its content. The consistent subtle quality feels like a laser brand message being repeated over and over again, in slight variations until I feel hypnotized and want to go out and buy a giant bag of Skittles. I always get a sense the updates are being whispered by a child telling a secret.

Here are a few examples.
1) Skittles carrier pigeons: good idea, or the best idea?
2) Let’s try an experiment. Click “Like” really quick. Then look in the mirror. Are you smiling?
3) Double Rainbows are awesome. Everybody likes having a backup singer.

So here are the top 3 reasons I think the Skittles Facebook page is doing a great job.

1. At a time when photos and videos breed the highest engagement response, the majority of their posts are just 2 lines of text — an approach they’re pulling off successfully.
2. Although there is strict consistency in their quirky updates, each update feels new.
3. Their updates are optimistic and make me smile, like a Rainbow.

A product made mostly of corn syrup and artificial colors, on Facebook, Skittles has been elevated to a brand with a global fellowship among its followers.

So lesson learned: Restraint, laser-focus and variations on the same exact theme over and over again are great ways to successfully build a brand.

Most small businesses know how to develop their marketing mix:

• Product
• Price
• Place (Distribution)
• Promotion

However, the mass adoption of the internet, mobile communication, and digital and social media over the last five years has brought about a necessity to re-evaluate our approach to the 4 P’s.

Product
Today, make sure your product or service definition is exceptionally focused. In today’s competitive online and in some cases global marketplace, it’s essential to be precise with your product or service’s competitive advantage. Consumers are flooded with options they can access with a simple click of a button. In an extremely transparent marketplace, it’s essential to stand out from the crowd, so make your brand differentiation crystal clear.

Price
As we all know, price comparison is as easy as hitting the Enter button. Know what your competition is selling and how they are pricing and discounting online. If your buyers know what their price options are, then you must know as well.

It’s easy to get caught up in everyday work and lose sight of both direct and indirect competition. Take the time to investigate your competitor’s pricing regularly, especially in light of expanding opportunities available online. That includes looking into discount sites like Groupon and Goldstar and promotions on geolocation sites like Foursquare (to name just a few). While doing so, you might find a new pricing strategy or a new indirect competitor you were previously unaware of.

Place
Distribution certainly has changed with the evolution of the internet. Many businesses now sell their product online, in store as well as through distributors. Venues sell their tickets in person, on their website and possibly through multiple online discounters.

No matter where you sell your product online, make it easy to buy! You cannot afford to make the buy button difficult or complicated to find. Even if you’re selling at your store, make sure your physical address and operating hours are easy to find on your website. Update your online purchasing software if it’s outdated. If you’re a local store, make sure you’re on Yelp and Foursquare and Citysearch. The distribution path with the least resistance is often the most successful one.

Promotion
Don’t sit back and expect your website and store front to automatically bring in sales. Create a clear plan of communication using new digital marketing opportunities. Coordinating promotion efforts via social media, video, geolocation, website, print and word of mouth will exponentially get your message out. Each communication channel should be in sync with the other, directing traffic to drive sales and encourage word of mouth. And, in today’s online search and ad word environment, it’s easier than ever to target your perfect buyer using demographics and behavioral analytics.

If you contrive something false, people will ultimately find out. But whether you’re an artist, bank, fish shop or scientist, the internet and all its eddies of information about you can be harnessed to your advantage in order to portray a picture that reflects your genuine personality and the best of what you have to offer.

Describing services in a well-done video can create a friendly, personal profile of a company while demonstrating a sense of authority and expertise.

The key to success is to create a short 30 sec-1 min. video that is clean, targeted, succinct, and professionally edited in order to make a strong and lasting impression. Remember, with online videos, less is more.