Social Media marketing done right Youtube Video
Valentine’s day is coming up and I was looking for a place for dinner. First thing that came to my mind was to go to Yelp.com and look for a good restaurant in Boston. I was filtering the results with restaurants that are most reviewed, if the restaurant is just okay, people would not bother writing about the dining experience or uploading pictures for the place. Therefore, if a lot of people are motivated enough to write about it, it must be pretty popular, or at least worth a try. The thing I like about Yelp.com is that, there is no advertisement from the restaurant, but simply comments and reviews posted by real people who have eaten there. Sometimes, they even include coupons or special offers. Users could even share pictures taken at the restaurant and post it so that more people can check out the place. This is groundswell, interactions among the customers, and comments from real people, which is more cost-effective and popular than traditional ways of advertising. It is not to say that social media is the only way to market, but sure is an effective way to do so.
If customers and users are on social networks, where should the companies be? Obviously, they should be listening to them through social networks. Listening from people who actually use the product or the service, companies can better market their prospective customers and understand what their customers think about the product.
Every company wants to sell lots of products and make profit. However, if the company only aims to make money without listening to what the people really want, they will never be successful. In this era, the only companies that can grow fast are the ones who can listen to its customers, respond quickly, and carefully monitor the brand through social media marketing. Therefore, it is extremely important to listen from groundswell and make changes accordingly in order to improve service quality or the product produced.
In the chapter, the author clearly asserted, “Your brand is whatever your customers say it is.” It is not the way you advertise it, it is not the way you imagine or present it. If restaurants owners were monitoring the comments on Yelp.com, they would be able to get insights from the customers through observing interactions among customers. Thus, they would know what do customers really think about their services and food quality. They could also search the brand on Google, blogs, communispace or youtube, and find out what customers are saying about the products. By carefully monitoring the brand, companies are able to take advantage of the groundswell by taking actions on the information gathered through listening, being responsive, changing future products and marketing plans, or generating new products.
Social media marketing with Youtube
After listening, companies can also talk to the groundswell by posting videos, joining social networks, blogging, or forming private communities. Building a community of loyal customers is essential, as they would help spread the word to their friends. As a result, conversations among users can be stimulated, and the brand image can be improved and monitored. So, wouldn't you begin to market through social media?
This is a respond post to the Groundswell reading
This is interesting to read after our class last night - learning about Yelp.com. I had neve even heard of it! What people have to say on SM sites is so important to the success of a company and businesses need to listen!
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