Marketing can take any form, but nothing works better than word of mouth marketing and word of mouth advertising. According to a 2019 survey, word of mouth marketing is one of the most credible marketing channels for 86% of consumers, and 74% go to their friends for recommendations of everyday products.
Bedraoui Oumayma’s 2020 survey also showed that 85.4% of respondents believed that social media influenced their purchasing decisions.
It all goes to show how crucial social networks like Facebook are for generating trust by creating positive word of mouth marketing.
You can run an influencer marketing campaign on Facebook to capitalize on word of mouth, you can publish customer video testimonials on your Facebook page, or you can run Facebook ads to highlight customer reviews to generate leads and sales.
However, Facebook also provides businesses with special word of mouth features that work pretty much on autopilot without your interference.
The three unique Facebook word of mouth marketing features are:
Let’s cover these three features in detail and see how they work.
Facebook users can get recommendations and suggestions from their friends by turning on the Recommendation feature. It gives them advice on where to eat, where to find good local stores, the best workshop in a specific area, etc.
A simple post can be converted to a recommendation post by the users and get your brand cookies from Facebook you can use to get followers.
When users ask for recommendations, a callout appears in the post that notifies their connections that they need suggestions. The post clearly mentions, “Looking for Recommendations”:
If the query is related to a specific location, it will highlight the map of the area. If the query isn’t related to a specific location (as in the example above), it will still show the map, but a general one.
A recommendation post is a perfect way for businesses to get some Facebook word of mouth marketing. You can use it to promote your business organically on Facebook in several ways.
Here are a few techniques to capitalize on this feature:
Creating a post is not hard but making one that’s relevant in the coming months is, so tools like these can help you improve content on Facebook and move the process forward. Don’t forget to keep your message consistent and that the ultimate goal is getting traffic to your website.
Facebook lets users discover local events around them, especially ones that their friends have shown interest in. Facebook has created an Events bookmark on the user’s homepage:
It shows users events based on their interests, recent searches, pages they’ve liked, and their friends’ interests. Whenever someone shows an interest in attending an event or leaves a comment, it shows up in the News Feed of the user’s connections, thus increasing the reach of Events.
Local Events is an exciting feature by Facebook that helps businesses generate Facebook word of mouth marketing. You just need to create an event to get started. Here is how to do it:
Once you’ve created an event, it’s time to post and promote it. Invite people. The more people show interest in your event, the better it is. Be sure to respond to questions on the event page and allow people to post comments as it will increase your event’s reach.
Running local events regularly will help increase your brand’s word of mouth marketing via Facebook.
You can use “Facebook help”, personalise content and many companies leverage this for better reach on social media but also personalise content and services, give better advice, optimize certain features and improve focus.
Facebook has made it easier for users to take action once they’ve found something they’re interested in. Instead of leaving Facebook, users can now place an order, get a quote, or complete an action right on the Facebook Page of the business.
The social media giant supports four types of actions as of now:
These are excellent features that allow any business to generate leads and sales directly from its Facebook Page.
If you want your followers and target audience to connect with your business on Facebook by taking action right away, you need to ensure that you are doing all of the following:
Facebook word of mouth marketing is getting easier with every single day. New features and partners are added regularly, and you need to keep track of all the changes.
Be one of the first companies to use the new word of mouth marketing features. Facebook provides you with several ways to connect, engage, and promote your business. You have to decide what methods and techniques you’ll use for your business.
Of course, you’ll need to get first-hand feedback for all this to work but consider this to be the newest in the series of tools that you’ll need to reach a wider audience.