Neoco

Today’s consumers are savvy, well informed individuals. They know what they like and they have an abundance of resources at their fingers to help them find it. 90% of consumers only spend a quarter of their overall search time for a particular product on the brand’s website.* So it begs the question, where does the other 75% of their information come from?

The number one priority for search is to offer the best possible customer experience, and more often than not this leads consumers to informal sources of information for peer reviews and ratings. So it becomes pretty clear that most companies aren’t supplying anywhere near enough information for their customers. Here at Neoco we appreciate the value in providing a one-stop shop for consumers. One of our clients, Sony, has collaborated with independent authenticated review providers, Reevoo to do just that. By enabling customers access to product reviews and ratings on their own website, Sony is providing consumers with all the relevant information they need to make their purchase decision in the one place.

Now this obviously opens companies up to having negative content on their websites, but what is the alternative? Thanks to Google Instants, users are already confronted with a ‘warts and all’ presentation of your brand. A recent Economist study** showed how social media content was increasingly a key traffic generator, which makes sense when you consider the high percentage of user-generated content available online and the fact that Google now includes Facebook and Twitter as ranking criteria. For this reason it’s crucial for companies to supervise their search response and manage it appropriately through social conversations on Twitter, Facebook, forums, reviews and sites like Yahoo answers.

If you’re still not convinced, consider this; people have always feared innovation and change. The concerns around social media are nothing new and echo the considerations every time there’s a seismic shift in the technology between business and customers. Telephone and email hardly brought on the demise of business – far from it, and in reality the same thing applies to Social Media. Over 50% of companies admit to limiting employee access to social media and yet have much more relaxed policies relating to email and phone usage.** This is entirely the wrong approach; companies should be empowering employees as ambassadors of their brand.

This all leads to one conclusion – companies need to get more involved. If they observe word of mouth conversations, facilitate them within their own assets, and join the discussion, they will drastically increase their visibility (Search) and their brand value. Ignoring Social Media just isn’t an option and with the current trend of power shifting from corporate companies to consumers, there has never been a better time to embrace Social Media.

Sources:
* Seyd Ali, Reevoo, WOMMA UK, How Word of Mouth Impacts on Search
** Simon McDonald, Insites Consulting, WOMMA UK, How Word of Mouth Impacts on Search

Tags  Facebook Google Revoo SEO social social CRM social crm strategy Sony Twitter