#Share

Caroline K. Muñoz, Natalie T. Wood

Description

The purpose of this book is to examine the influence of sWOM and provide guidance on how to operationalize its growing power.

Each day, millions of consumers venture online to search and exchange product information, seek out, and share opinions.

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication has been shown to influence consumer actions across a variety of industries. A significant portion of eWOM occurs on social media platforms. Social word of mouth (sWOM)—a subset of eWOM—has incredible reach with the potential to influence over 4.6 billion active social media consumers.

The purpose of this book is to examine the influence of sWOM and provide guidance on how to operationalize its growing power. Our goal in writing this book is to bring together industry best practices and academic research to help you construct social media content that

• speaks with your brand voice,
• stimulates engagement,
• inspires consumers to #share,
• and complies with industry and federal guidelines.

Sujets

• Gestion des ventes
• Communication digitale
• Marketing stratégique
• Business
• Facebook
• Economics
• Internet marketing
• Marketing et communication
• Digital Marketing
• Marketing digital

Informations

• Publié par: Business Expert Press
• Date de parution: 07 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781637424155
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

#Share
#Share
Building Social Media Word of Mouth
Natalie T. Wood and Caroline K. Muñoz
#Share: Building Social Media Word of Mouth
Copyright © Business Expert Press, LLC, 2023.
Cover design by Charlene Kronstedt
Interior design by Exeter Premedia Services Private Ltd., Chennai, India
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior permission of the publisher.
First published in 2022 by
Business Expert Press, LLC
222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017
www.businessexpertpress.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-63742-414-8 (paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-63742-415-5 (e-book)
Business Expert Press Digital and Social Media Marketing and Advertising Collection
First edition: 2022 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Conor, Ronan, and Ava, who remind me that life is a journey, not a race.
To Jose, Max, and Sebastian Thanks for your patience.
Description
Each day, millions of consumers venture online to search and exchange product information, seek out, and share opinions.
Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication has been shown to influence consumer actions across a variety of industries. A significant portion of eWOM occurs on social media platforms. Social word of mouth (sWOM)-a subset of eWOM-has incredible reach with the potential to influence over 4.6 billion active social media consumers.
The purpose of this book is to examine the influence of sWOM and provide guidance on how to operationalize its growing power. Our goal in writing this book is to bring together industry best practices and academic research to help you construct social media content that
speaks with your brand voice,
stimulates engagement,
inspires consumers to #share,
and complies with industry and federal guidelines.
Keywords
brand advocates; brand ambassadors; consumer reviews; eWOM; endorsers; Facebook; influencers; Instagram; Pinterest; regulations; social influence; social media marketing; social media policy; sWOM; Twitter; viral marketing; WOMM; word of mouth marketing; YouTube
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 Social Word of Mouth Marketing (sWOM)
Chapter 2 The Social Consumer
Chapter 3 Social Business
Chapter 4 Storytelling
Chapter 5 Social Influencers and Employee Advocates
Chapter 6 The Power of Persuasion
Chapter 7 Legal and Regulatory Issues
About the Authors
Index
Preface
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 exciting piece of news, and pin things they will probably never make (Hello, Bourbon Brown Sugar Maple Bacon Candy!). This book focuses on an underrepresented topic of digital and physical bookshelves. This book focuses on the subject 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, engaging with consumers on social media is exceptionally challenging for many companies. 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 their social media efforts produce little results. It is not easy getting people to like your Facebook page, retweet your news alert, and comment on your video, and it is even more challenging to get them to discuss and share your posts with others.
When consumers share, they engage in word of mouth (WOM). One form of WOM is electronic WOM (eWOM). A wealth of books and websites discuss the importance of eWOM and how to use it for business purposes. Yet, there are limited resources on 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 or she 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 in engaging consumers in sWOM, it needs to be a companywide effort. Your company needs to become a social business where 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. We delve into how to create content that resonates with your consumers—content that engages them and that 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 like. Throughout, we offer examples of companies succeeding in this area and provide you with resources to help your company grow.
CHAPTER 1
Social Word of Mouth Marketing (sWOM)

Figure 1.1 An example of social sharing on Twitter
Source: Courtesy of C. Munoz.
Too personal? A tweet can say a lot. And a tweet with a hashtag and an image not only communicates more but is also much more likely to be shared. The screenshot in Figure 1.1 embodies many topics that this book will explore: the role of storytelling, the persuasive power of images, emotional appeals, personalization, and social sharing. It also marks the beginning of a positive story—which is where all good social media campaigns (and books) should begin.
In the summer of 2014, Coca-Cola launched the personalized “Share a Coke” campaign in the United States. Twenty oz. bottles of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero were adorned with 250 of the most popular American names for millennials and teens. Consumers were prompted to share their photos of the personalized bottles using #Shareacoke on social media. They could visit shareacoke.com to create and share virtual, personalized bottles on Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. They could also be featured on Coke billboards by using #Shareacoke (Hitz 2014). Consumers were drawn to soda bottles that were emblazoned with not only their name but also the names of their family and friends. Coca-Cola’s bottle personalization was putting into action something that Dale Carnegie taught us long before—“A person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.” So, naturally, consumers wanted to share their name discovery on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Over the course of the campaign, consumers shared their experiences via the #Shareacoke hashtag over 250,000 times (Deye 2015). During the 2014 campaign cycle, more than 353,000 bottles were disseminated virtually (Tadena 2014). Geo-tagging and sales were correlated, and sure enough, there was a significant relationship between social sharing and sales (Deye 2015). By all accounts, the initial campaign was a sales success; Coke saw sales growth of more than 30 percent in one week (Deye 2015). Further evidence of the campaign’s success can also be found in its variations. In 2016, Coca-Cola launched “Share a Coke and a Song” which included song lyrics on labels, and in 2017, they printed holiday destinations on bottles distributed in the UK. More recently and with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, Coco-Cola created the “Holiday Heroes” Share a Coke campaign. Approximately, 40 heroes, such as caregiver, educator, and doctor, were placed on Coke labels (Arthur 2020). Today (or at least in 2022) you can still customize and purchase an 8 oz. Coca-Cola glass bottle for $6.00 (Coca-Cola 2022). Personalization is at the heart of why the Share a Coke campaign worked; however, part of their success was certainly attributed to the power of social word of mouth (sWOM) marketing.

93 percent of global consumers trust brand recommendations from family and friends more than any other forms of advertising. (Austin 2020)
Why Word of Mouth Marketing?
You are reading this book because you get it. Word of mouth (WOM) marketing is powerful—it impacts not only product preferences and purchasing decisions, but it serves to mold consumer expectations and even postpurchase product attitudes (Kimmel and Kitchen 2014). The beauty of branded WOM marketing communication is that it is a natural, normal part of our everyday conversations. In fact, over 2.4 billion conversations each day involve brands (Google; KellerFay Group 2016). The ample number of conversations related to products and services is attributable to the fact that we need and actively seek out input from family, friends, and even virtual strangers before we make a purchase. A 2021 study found that 98 percent of consumers surveyed believed that reviews were an “essential resource when making pur