Guest post by Christina Lima of Clevertim (learn more about the author at the end of the article)
Sales people had a great time in the ’80s when life was easy going and the social networks not yet invented. All they had to do was broadcast the official message, wrap it in some eye candy, pay big bucks for advertising and Bob’s the uncle.
Customers were defenseless creatures, not because they were stupid, but because they were part of an asymmetrical industrial warfare, where the big companies had all the information and the customers had very few ways of challenging, double-checking or sharing bad or good experiences among themselves. The “word of mouth” was, as it is today, the only way to gain extra useful information from sources you could trust and use — either to buy or stay away from certain products or brands.
Needless to say those times are gone and the game has changed considerably!
The social revolution meant not only that customers could exchange nice photos of their pets more easily, it also meant they had additional channels to communicate, connect and share their experiences about sellers, big companies and their products.
“Caveat emptor” — “buyer beware” that is — was something Romans knew about, so not exactly a new thing. It was true then, it’s true now. However, never before had customers been so empowered and so easily be able to discover scams, see through corporate nonsense, and on the positive side, spread the word (“of mouth” if there was any doubt) about great products and services.
Let’s look at a few social channels and tools at the modern customer’s disposal.
Reviews
This one had a huge impact in the way people shop and buy online, and even offline. It is now so easy to check online (“Google it”) the product you want to buy and see what other customers had to say about it. Were they happy with their purchase? What are the pros and cons? What do worse complaints/reviews have to complain about? Do they complain about something you value or something that’s of less importance to you?
Some of the cons for consumers include:
- A lot of time is needed for research, unless there is a clear winner.
- Some reviews are fake, and you still have to be vigilant.
- There is rarely a product with 100% positive reviews and that means you need to know exactly what you are after and what “features” are important to you. Is the X, Y or Z feature more important for you? Or perhaps great customer support is more important to you? Best money back guaranteed? And so on.
Advice for small businesses:
What to do: Ask your customers to review your products, especially the people who like your products. Send your products to influential blogs, magazines, wand ebsites and ask for a review.
What not to do: Fake reviews.
Likes
If a friend of yours “likes” a product, service or company on Facebook or other social networks, that’s a clear indication that they think that’s a good, safe product. They trust it and so should you. It’s an implicit endorsement of trust. You feel more encouraged to buy those products because you trust your friends’ judgements. It’s that “word of mouth” again, expressed through the statement, “I Like this product,” I’m just wondering when Facebook will attempt to have a go at monetizing “likes”. Oh, wait…
Some of the cons for consumers include:
- Likes sometimes express desire not knowledge. A like from your friend can be “I would like to try this product” and it doesn’t actually mean that your friend has a product and likes it.
- Likes, like other web-based actions, can be faked, although probably not by your close friends.
- Companies might start to pay for “likes,” in which case, a sponsored “like” loses its value of establishing trust via association.
Advice for small businesses:
What to do: Ask your customers to like your products on Facebook.
What not to do: Fake likes.
Tweets
Tweets from your friends or from influential people like celebrities can sway you into action. Again, this is nothing new, and some tweets like that have been discovered in the wild. It is generally frowned upon when something like that gets discovered. Genuine tweets that recommend products or complain about certain aspects of some products or services can greatly help in the buying process.
Some of the cons for consumers include:
- Tweets are short by nature, so only a brief message can be included. If more is needed, a link to a blog or an article needs to be added.
- Tweets are ephemeral in nature and they can easily get lost in the noise.
Advice for small businesses:
What to do: Treat your customers nicely to encourage them to share their pleasant experiences with their friends on Twitter.
What not to do: Fake tweets.
This article is just a start to get you thinking about other ways to sell to the social customer. If there is something to take away from this article is this, “The social customer wants to buy not to be sold to.” She will use all the available social media tools to gather as much information as possible before she buys. So, if you are a small business, spend a few minutes thinking how else you can use social media to find and engage the social customers and encourage them to buy from you.
About the Author
Christina Lima is the main founder at Clevertim which is a web based contact manager and simple CRM for small business. She also writes the Cevertim blog about simple CRM with useful tips and topics for small businesses.
