Social Media and Word of Mouth

Introduction:

People always talk about their experiences, services, emotions, products and brands so the rod of mouth is not new on the globe but the thing which is new is the use of the word of mouth by the marketers and for the marketing of the products and services by the companies. Word of mouth marketing was not considered a mode of marketing that could be initiated or could have been controlled previously and it was an offline type of marketing as people talked about the products and service so a company when they were at office, at lunch breaks or some other family or work get together but with the innovations and inventions like social media this method of marketing has revolutionized as people now have a platform available through which they can talk with other people about their needs, services, products, emotions and brands along with the sharing of their views(Griffiths, 2006). New form of online communities have been formed and due to the flexibility in interactivity of the social media and web and people now connect with each other more often than before and talk about their daily chores which includes the debates regarding eth products and services people use. This paper has an aim to put some light on the thrust provided by the social media to the word of mouth in being one of the best ways of marketing.

Analysis:

From 2005 till now, according to the research carried on by Pew Researchers, 65% of the American adults sue the social media sites but this is only some of the popular sites data such as face book and twitter etc, apart from it there are a number of other social media websites which are used by people locally and nationally. When people talk with each other and interact, they share their views regarding different types of products and services and a person talking about the qualities of a product or service having no connection with the company directly is much more persuasive for another person than the qualities of a product or service being told by a person who is taking salary from the company for doing this (Zimmerman & Ng, 2013).  Social media usage has largely been increased in recent few years and this has caused the companies to think regarding their marketing strategies.

In today’s world, a company cannot think of having a successful marketing strategy that does not involve the word of mouth campaign and a good word o mouth campaign could not be supported with having a social media presence. Although there are many things that must be considered in a word of mouth but some of the major things that are considered by the companies are:

• Engaging in product and brand related discussions.
• Monitoring the discussions of the people regarding the products and services of the company from marketing perspective.
• Establishing communication strategies by engaging people in talks and conversations.
• Catching up the influencers, who have influenced the trends on the social media.

Social media actually provides many types of communication and conversational methods and ways for the people which in turn cause the people to talk and communicate easily and all over the world(Tuten & Solomon, 2013). Previously people used to talk and use the word of mouth for the people of their town or street or at most with the people of their city but with the innovations in social media nd inventions like internet have transformed the web and social media into a global village where you can talk with the people of other continents. A person sitting at the east corner of the world can talk about the service of an international hotel with a person sitting in the west corner of the world on the social media.

This flexibility in the way of communication and the nature of the word of mouth marketing campaigns have made this method of marketing, the best method of marketing by the use of the social media as a platform where companies can create the pages and causes of the products and services and people from all around the world can express their views on the products and the service while recommending the changes to the products.

Conclusion:

Word of Mouth is the most trusted method of marketing by the users and consumers as it is based on the views and opinions of a third party which is not linked or directly connected to the company. WOMM used to exist from a long time as people shared their views about every aspect of life. But the exposure of the people was very limited, which was later boosted by the invention of social media and this has boosted the marketing through WOM. People now use social media more than they used previously and this also has increased in the communication of the people with each other and the companies which has helped companies market their products in a better way