This past holiday season I watch my wife sell 4 people on purchasing a Nook while she was in the Barnes & Noble store at Union Square. My wife is a teacher and she does not work part time for B&N. However, a couple of years ago when she wanted an eReader for Mother’s day she did her normal online research, then she went to the stores and played with a few eReeaders before deciding on the Nook.
She loves her nook and the two are inseparable. So it was no surprise to watch her one Saturday talking to strangers in B&N and convincing them to purchase a Nook. My wife’s satisfaction with the Nook product and her positive experiences with B&N turned her into a Brand Ambassador for B&N. If you approached my wife today with a question about eReaders, she can tell you the pros, cons and benefits or each eReaeder device and in the end she is going to recommend the Nook. My wife is what every company desire to have thousands of Brand Ambassadors recommending their products/services without compensation or what is better known as Word of Mouth Marketing.
Word of Mouth marketing is a powerful form of marketing because the recommendation comes from someone who has experience with the product or service they are recommending. When we purchase based on a recommendation we feel less stressed because someone we came into contact with had positive things to say. Professional sales people know that selling is a transference of feeling and when someone really likes what they own they exhibit their passion and enthusiasm through their recommendation. The receiver of the recommendation feels the that passion and enthusiasm and gets excited about making the purchase.
Watching my wife led me to understand that the number of Facebook Fans or Twitter Followers or people in your Google+ don’t mean squat if these people do not recommend your product/service in their social media conversations. Every day thousands of people are asking and receiving recommendations for products/services on every social media platform from LinkedIn to Tumblr. The question you should be asking is “Will my fans and followers recommend my products/services and if not why?”
Using social media to create Brand Ambassadors require that you interact with them not market to them. On Twitter do you follow back people who follow your brand? If not again WHY? How can you interact with someone if you won’t at least follow them. You may feel that your search analysis on locating people who mention your brand or your industry is enough however, follow some people back and have some real conversations and maybe they’ll mention your brand more and ReTweet y0ur content more.
Data from EdgeRank Checker shows that Facebook pages are only reaching 17% of the page’s fans and most fans 
never go back to a Facebook page after they’ve initially liked it. To be successful you have to get your posts to show up in your fan’s newsfeed and cultivate more likes and comments on your posts. Facebook provides a feature on your posts that informs you how many people have seen and talked about your posts. See the image on the right. If the numbers are small then you need to increase the amount of content you share and maybe even a strategic shift in what you post.
Generating Word of Mouth recommendations will require that you create excellent customer experiences at every point they touch your brand including social media. If you aren’t getting the social media love from your fans and followers then its time to change your focus on how you interact with them.