Did You Know? A Smaller Facebook Following is Better for Your Brand

Photo: “iPicnic,’ by flickr user JD Hancock via Attribution License 2.0, with text overlay

Last month, Delucchi Plus sent Senior Content Strategist Drew Lawrence and Digital Strategist/Social Advertising Expert Isel Galvan to New York City for Social Media Week. Throughout that week, Drew and Isel attended countless workshop sessions and industry panels featuring some prominent industry leaders from around the country that discussed the state of social media. This series explores their key learnings. 

 “If people are not talking about you, they are forgetting about you.” – John Moore

Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) can be considered the original social media platform – so it was no surprise that Social Media Week NYC dedicated an entire session to the most powerful method of human communication.

Led by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), the session discussed the true value of word of mouth, online and off, relative to other marketing and media. While few would argue with this logic – and the importance of this rather mysterious channel – most find it extremely difficult to put a number to its value.

A case study published by WOMMA – one of the first major independent studies to show the value of a conversation – put some numbers to this value:

• 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over ANY other form of recommendation
• Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) is responsible for $6 trillion of annual customer sales
• Word of Mouth amplifies the effect of paid media by 15% as it enhances the impact with a synergy effect
• The value of a word of mouth impression is anywhere from 5 to 100+ times more valuable than a paid media impression
• Word of mouth occurs 2/3 offline and 1/3 online – playing both a direct an indirect role in driving business performance. The value of word of mouth is more impactful when it comes from offline conversations because of the importance of human interaction

If those numbers aren’t enough to make you go “WHAT?!” then here’s some more insights we’re throwing your way:

Why should marketers care?

• Why would you choose to ignore what has been identified as the most valuable form of marketing – the one that customers trust the most?
• Remember: 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over ANY other form of recommendation
• In a recent study by the American Marketing Association, 64% of marketing executives said that they believe word of mouth to be the most effective form of marketing – but only 6% of them believed to be using it effectively.

What have we been doing wrong – and what can we do right?

• Brands have been too caught up in growing audiences instead of engaging and connecting with them. Wouldn’t you rather have 100 brand lovers and advocates over 1 million people who just signed up to try to win something you were giving away?
• The focus on audience size has taken away from the value of conversations. Being talked about and leveraging that word of mouth requires a strategy that goes far beyond the number of Likes on your page.
• Let’s move away from the 4 Ps and focus on the 4 Es – as posed by Suzanne Fanning, President of WOMMA – which are Engage, Equip, and EMPOWER.
  • Engage: Give your fans the attention they deserve and listen to what they are telling you.
  • Equip: Give them a reason to talk! Whether that’s because of how awesome your product/service is or simply your brand story – understand what it is they like about you.
  • EMPOWER: Give them ways to talk about you and share your content and messages.

Why now?

Word of mouth is more important now than ever – why? Technology and Social Media! Technology has increased social connectivity – which means that if you do it right, it’s easier than ever to have your fans and audiences do your marketing for you simply by loving you. If you engage with them, give them what they want, and give them something to talk about – they will absolutely go and tell all their friends and family about you. 

What does a successful WOMM campaign look like?

“It’s credible, social, repeatable, measurable and respectable” – Suzanne Fanning