Canadian folk singer Dave Carroll was travelling through united airlines and got his $3500 guitar damaged by the cargo handlers, Not only the airline refused the compensation but was rude to him. So he made a music video telling his experience and posted it on youtube. Three days later it was watched 500000 times and by mid august the figure reached to 5 millions. United airline was having its public relations at stake, because with this thousands of customers were coming ahead to vent their dissatisfaction. Gone are the days when companies were rude to their customers, today if a company does so, not only people will withdraw their custom but will also badmouth the company on these social media sites, But this does not stop companies from using social media sites as a part of their marketing plan.
Today hardly anyone using internet is not having any social network's account. With such a major chunk of potential customers available at one single place, Its impossible for the companies to keep themselves refrained from using these sites as a marketing tool. Almost 90% of companies use these sites to show their presence, provide information, generate sales leads and give exposure to the company. As most of the companies have realized that social media is vital for them to be successful, very few have an idea of how to analyze it. Its more than just measuring how often people have clicked their ads. Finally entrepreneurs should understand that social media are not toys to be handled by inexperienced people, they are professional and effective communication channels that needs the understanding of the technical know how to reach to a community.
Source: http://www.lexisnexis.com.ezproxy.fiu.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/
In my blog, I briefly mentioned the story of David Carroll, specifically referencing the time that consumers spend on providing negative feedback, which may be even greater that the impact and time spent on positive consumer feedback. However, as you mentioned, because of this capability, it gives the consumer some power that we previously did not possess.
ReplyDeleteBelieve me when I say it is definitely a good thing, because consumers are now much more knowledgeable about organizations and their product offerings. Social media does play a major role in contributing to the virtual sharing of all kinds of information.
Thus, organizations have to assume a critical stance that engages the consumer with accurate and positive information, before they are challenged and overshadowed by disgruntled consumer rebuttals.
I totally agree with you Rohan. Word of mouth marketing is not about giving consumers talking points, as if they were brand spokesperson,its about providing an extra-ordinary consumer experience that makes consumers want to recommend you. If word of mouth was confined to face-to-face communication, it would have restrained its reach. However,social media & online communities extend the reach of Word of Mouth to infinity. Almost all companies are discovering that engrossing consumers in an online social media community is a powerful marketing program to support this approach to word of mouth.
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