Social media is, in many ways, akin to the wild, Wild West—lawless, crazy, messy, and sometimes, a little brutal. If you agree, feel some sympathy for us who attempt to teach this topic. Without question, social media is a fascinating subject, and let’s face it, it’s not going anywhere. So, let’s take the horse by the reigns, follow the regulatory laws, develop some order, and learn more about how you can use social media in your company. But, before we get carried away, we should warn you—this book is not a “Complete Guide to Social Media” (there are plenty of books that have tackled that monster). This book focuses on what lies at both the heart and soul of social media: what motivates consumers to update their Facebook status, retweet an interesting piece of news, and pin things that they will probably never make (Hello, Bourbon Brown Sugar Maple Bacon Candy!). This book focuses on a topic that is under-represented on digital and physical bookshelves. This book focuses on the topic of social sharing (#Share).
Everyday consumers are drawn to social media to share their opinions, ideas, purchases, events, recent finds, and much more with their social networks. They also use social media to find information to help them make their purchase decisions. Logically, companies are drawn to social media to reach and engage with their consumers. However, for many companies, trying to engage with consumers on social media is extremely challenging. The sheer volume of tweets, status updates, pins, and videos that consumers are exposed to every day is staggering—it is like drinking from a fire hose. Companies are increasingly frustrated that despite all their hard work, their social media efforts appear to produce little results. It is not easy getting people to like your Facebook page, retweet your news alert, comment on your video, and it is even more difficult to get them to discuss and share your posts with others.
When consumers share, they are engaging in word of mouth (WOM). One form of WOM is electronic WOM (eWOM). There is a wealth of books and websites that discuss the importance of eWOM and how to use it for business purposes. Yet, there is a big empty spot (at the time of writing this book) on bookshelves on the topic of social WOM (sWOM). Certainly, there are similarities between eWOM and sWOM; however, we suggest that we should view sWOM as a subset of eWOM. We believe that there are differences—differences that warrant a closer look. And, that is what we aim to do.
In this book, we discuss the importance of understanding the social consumer—who he is, what social media accounts he or she uses, why he or she uses them, what content he or she wants to engage with, and more importantly, what makes him or her want to share his or her opinion and your company message with others. We advocate that to be successful with engaging consumers in sWOM it needs to be a companywide effort. That is, your company needs to become a social business in which communicating and sharing on social media is a part of your company’s DNA. Going back to our Wild West analogy, we highlight the various federal and industry regulations supporting sWOM and discuss the importance of developing a social media policy. From here, we delve into how to create content that resonates with your consumers—content that engages them, which they feel compelled to discuss and share. We examine how to craft engaging textual stories and highlight the power of visuals. We also discuss how you can harness the powers of persuasion to encourage your consumers to share, retweet, comment, and the like. Throughout all of this, we offer examples of companies who are already succeeding in this area and provide you with resources to help your company succeed.