Word of Mouth Means Listening and Responding

Social marketing and networking tips for effective engangement

There are numerous social outlets through which we can communicate with the rest of the world. But, it is not about always how many people we reach as it is how many people we share the experience with. How can you achieve a good conversation? What does it take to get people to not only talk with you but also talk about you? Remember that on a social platform, word of mouth marketing works by spreading through your audience’s networks, updates, and connections. If you do not stimulate conversation, no one will talk about your brand.

Often, the most popular question is: Are others influenced by your posted content? Are people listening or are they just passing through and ignoring? But when it comes to a social network, there are more variables to consider. 

Be aware of what’s happening

Start by paying attention to what is going on around you. Posting on a social network can stimulate activity, but if you don’t understand what direction the conversation is taking, you won’t be able to make the most of the opportunity. It is also beneficial to pay attention to what is currently trending and interacting on other sites by simply watching the flow of the conversation. One of the biggest issues with social networks is that you aren’t always able to see an entire comment list at one time. Be sure that you scan through from the beginning to get an idea of where things started and where they are now.

Know the purpose

So, ask yourself why it is that people talk in general. What is the purpose of a response? At the core level, the commenter seeks recognition, even if their comment is unrelated or irrelevant. They want their own words and response to be seen.

Primarily, each individual is looking for someone to converse with more than anything else. If they see a post, they might like it or put a short comment such as “great idea.” Keep in mind that any response deserves an acknowledgement. 

Listen and respond accordingly

Your main objective is to get them talking in order to provide yourself the opportunity to entice them. But, in order to keep the conversation going, you have to listen to what is going on and be alert at all times. If you create a post, check it regularly. Start a conversation that is open to outside comment, and watch which direction it goes. In many cases, direction can be altered by your response and interaction. 

You have to pay attention so that you can spot opportunity and jump in at the right moment in order to up-sell your brand. In this situation, you must be able to develop relevance between the conversation and your brand. Where did you start and where are you right now? You don’t want to jump in with a random input that breaks the flow of conversation. Listen and guide the conversation until the time is right, then approach them with how your brand influences the topic at hand. 

It is important that you never underestimate the value of listening so that you can effectively interact with your social network contacts. Remember, the worst thing you can do is post and hope it turns for the best. It is up to you to make the most of the opportunity by listening and responding to your audience.

Which LinkedIn Groups Work for You?

LinkedIn Groups and your social marketing strategy

Social networks have become an increasingly powerful marketing tool for businesses both big and small. Some have certain applications and benefits, targeting visuals, info-bites, and customer service benefits. However, Linkedin has a more focused benefit: networking with your audience. 

Now, it may seem that you could network on any social network, but Linkedin is designed specifically to help businesses network with each other and a business-oriented audience. 

One of the most widely used tools of Linkedin is the groups it hosts. These can range from three up into the thousands, so it’s not difficult to find people to talk to. One of the biggest problems with these groups is that new conversations are rarely initiated. Most of the time, the topic is related to old info or even replicated theories that people already know works.

The problem is finding someone who is interested and wants to continue a conversation. Using Linkedin groups isn’t as easy as targeting a similar interest group and jumping in to see what the topic of the day is. Rather, it is how you perform in the group that will generate interest and ultimately sales. 

So, how can you make the most of your participation in a Linkedin group?  The right approach is needed to start generating interest. 

Gather others

The initial approach is to start by simply inviting others to attend your groups or making announcements to your associates. It doesn’t have to be exuberantly formal, because the primary goal is to get more people to interact in the conversation. Additionally, invites tend to spread quickly by word of mouth, and start conversations of their own (did you get invited?). 

This is ideal if you want to have a group discussion. By simply inviting your associates and audience members to join in the conversation, you create interest to some extent. Remember that this is a networking tool to meet new people and the best way to do that is to get more people to converse with you. However, you can’t just invite an audience to the same old show they already know. You have to be ready to provide them with good reason to attend. 

Out with the old, in with the new

The main problem with Linkedin groups is that there are few new conversations started. Results were that commenting was also dwindling and the basic interest had dropped because fewer people had something new to talk about. That’s where you come in.

Information that is shared or duplicated tends to be old and lacks interest. While it can be effective when enforcing your theories and business strategies, it has been proven and tends to lack the ability to generate new conversation. And that’s where many Linkedin groups falter. There is discussion in the group, but it normally only covers old information. 

This means that it’s time to start a new conversation. Create a new trend with a new idea and introduce it into your group. While it may be accepted or argued, it is a key stepping stone to initiating group activity. They can start thinking new things, communicating with you, and you getting new ideas. 

Information that is original is the most valuable asset to a conversation. Few people enjoy talking about yesterday’s news or discussing the weather over and over again. This means that in order to begin quality networking, you have to generate quality content in your groups. 

Work to create a solution that targets your customer’s needs and applies to your business. New approach? New applications? It’s all about new information that will generate new interest. An audience always love seeing a good problem get solved, even if it is just a simple solution. 

When searching for new info to discuss, pay attention to new problems that arise. Are there popular questions trending on the web that relate to your business? Are there viable solutions that you can provide? This is how you get involved with your group. 

Then there is the importance of finding groups that are effective for your business. Groups might have labels and target specific conversations, but how they go about communicating makes all the difference. It’s good to relocate from group to group, searching for new topics and fresh material. If you find yourself surrounded by the same old information regularly, then the group isn’t growing well and it’s probably time to move on.

Linkedin groups alone are not the key to networking. It is up to you to find and create conversation that will attract new audience members to help build quality conversation and new leads to follow.

Powering Up Your Personal Word of Mouth with Best Blogging Practices

Power up your personal word of mouth with these blogging tips

It is true that word of mouth marketing has been with us for as long as commerce has existed. Interestingly, word of mouth marketing has dramatically changed in recent times, especially since the advent of the internet. Information technology has transformed word of mouth marketing into a new specialty in marketing that can be planned, is actionable and can be tracked just like other major forms of marketing. It has therefore come to be a general term to refer to several techniques that are used to energize and engage customers. It has come to include blogs, viral marketing, loyalty programs, social media, emails, discussion boards, mobile texting, and other strategies that get customers to talk to others about your products.

In particular, there are several ways in which you can harness the power of word of mouth marketing through blogging sites and other social media to significantly boost the exposure of your company. You can use blogs to give people and potential customers a reason to speak and talk about your products or services.

Word of Mouth through Blogging

Blogs can significantly contribute towards your word of mouth marketing in various ways. Firstly, blogging software like Wordpress and Blogger.com do not need you to have any special programming skills or knowledge. This means that even a technically challenged employee or business owner can easily post a blog and tap into the online market.

Secondly, due to the fact that blogs are meant to be regularly posted, they are very helpful in increasing a business's exposure through the provision of new and useful content for search engines to comb through.

Thirdly, blogging enables the company or business owner to have control over the content being marketed because the business owner or the company can choose which topics to post. As a business owner, you can start a blog that will elicit a discussion that is centered on a particular aspect of your products, and everyone will be discussing about your product in those angles through their posts. In addition, blogging is a good way to encourage customers to provide feedback by submitting their comments. The fact that the customers' comments can be viewed by everyone who visits the blog makes this a perfect word of mouth marketing technique that is worth pursuing for any business owner.

Just like blogging, you can harness the power of word of mouth marketing through discussion boards on certain blogs. Discussion boards are very helpful especially if you want to develop relationships between your business and your customers. By offering a forum for individuals with common interests to share their thoughts or their interests, discussion boards can be successfully used to create a sense of community. As a business owner, you can take advantage of this format by presenting an initial topic of discussion with relevant information that will encourage customers to post comments and even ask questions. This is a very effective word of mouth technique that will ensure your products or brands are discussed by thousands or even millions of customers and potential customers.

Some important Points to Note

One important step that you should consider when generating word of mouth marketing through blogs is to have a clear understanding of the blogs that are most likely to generate a significant impact on your target audience. Although the largest blogs will normally have the widest reach, you need to consider if they are the ones that will best relate with your target audience. You will need to work with bloggers who have between 100 and 1,000 people linked to them because according to experts, it is this category of bloggers that can enable PR individuals to successfully reach niche markets.

Nevertheless, you need to remember that bloggers will never be journalists, and they will not just publish your press releases. They will usually write stories with opinions, views, and angles, thus a plain, mass-targeted advertorial or press release will basically not cut it. It is not possible for you to tell the blogger his/her own opinions, but you can assist them by developing an informative and interesting story in a way that will relate to their target audience. You should keep in mind the fact that bloggers intend to publish stories and not a sales pitch.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, word of mouth marketing depends on customers sharing their views or opinions in an open public forum, and the internet has significantly boosted the exposure that businesses can gain by using this technique. Through the use of blogs and other internet resources, you can do several things to get more from blogs without actually blogging.

Twitter Metrics that Maximize Word of Mouth Marketing

Tools to improve your Twitter influence 

Twitter is a really great tool for your business. But how do you know how effective your business Twitter account is? There are programs called metrics that you can use in order to know how your word of mouth marketing is doing on Twitter. Below you will find some of the most effective metrics that you can use.

Your influence on Twitter

Even though you may have a large number of followers on Twitter, what is more important is how influential you are. Services such as PeerIndex and Klout can tell you the amount of influence you have over your Twitter followers. 

These kinds of services will generally provide you with a number out of either 10 or even 100. This is going to indicate the level of your influence. Something else that will be more interesting though is the statistics. If you never thought of your Twitter influence before, you should think about it now.

Time Zones of Your Followers

Being informed about when your followers are awake is going to help you time your tweets so that they can be seen by the most number of people. Tweriod is a service that can pull all of the time zones of your followers from their bios on Twitter, and then tell you when it's going to be best for you to tweet based on that information. They are going to provide you with time zone graphs and these are good for calculating tweet times as well.

A second good tool for you to use is Timely. This app is really simple and it can tell you which of the last 200 tweets you wrote didn't reach their highest potential. It will also suggest different daily time zones when you can try tweeting.

Tweets Which Receive the Highest Number of Retweets

You can track the links that you put in Twitter using something called bit.ly or another service, and you will start to quickly learn what is getting retweeted and what isn’t. This can be really valuable information when you want to maximize your Twitter presence, since it can help with refining the content and style of your Tweets.

If you find that your quality content is not being retweeted frequently, use a quote or ask a relevant question.

The Interests of Followers

Knowing whether or not you're targeting the best followers is crucial for seeing high conversion and engagement rates from a Twitter account. You are able to get a fast snapshot of the interests of followers by performing a keyword analysis of their bios. This is going to show their niches. One of the best things that you can use is Foller.me . It gives you your influencers keywords that are repeated the most in a text cloud plus a whole host of other helpful information!

How you're using Twitter

You may think you know everything about the way that you're using Twitter, but this is probably not true, even if you're managing your own account. However, there is some information available about the way that you use Twitter that you may not know. What day are you tweeting the most? What time of day are you tweeting the most?

Among the best tools for graphing your use of Twitter is called TweetStats. You are able to view in chart and graph form what days, months, and hours you're tweeting the most. It also displays to you who you have replied to the most, which Tweets are retweeted more, and which interface you're using to access Twitter.

These are just a few valuable metrics that you can use when it comes to using Twitter, especially when you're pairing it with a bit of that information that is found above. You are able to use the tweet patterns to get to your audience much better based on their time zone, the people who are retweeting you, and a whole lot more. Through tweaking your habits on Twitter to much better suit your audience, you will be able to reach more people, convert a lot more clicks, and get more overall success on Twitter. Use the information above to increase the effectiveness of Twitter for your business.