The main purpose of this week's blog post is to follow-up on our class discussion regarding networks and online word of mouth. As I had mentioned during the discussion, one of the main disruptive effects of social media is that it enabled or added a whole new layers of influencers who now have the right tools/platforms to voice their opinions to the general public, and the tools have also enabled the general public to access the opinions of diverse group of influencers who opinions weren't previously easily accessible. One of the preliminary steps marketers need to take is to identify these influencers, identify their demographic and psychographic characteristics and engage with them. If done in the right manner, these influencers could become powerful purveyors of positive influence. So here is what you need to do:
Follow either or both of the following links:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/frances-san-francisco
http://www.yelp.com/biz/hollywood-nails-and-spa-dallas
1) The links will take you the Yelp website pages of various businesses and consumer reviews. The reason I picked Yelp is because most businesses listed on this site are local small businesses. So good way to comprehend the strategies.
2) Pick the top 4-5 reviews, read them. Also, if you click on the reviewers' names, you will be led to their personal profile pages.
3) Now, read the reviews, take note of the profile pages, and reflect on the following questions:
a) who are these people? Where do they belong (go beyond their city of residence; we know that already)?
b) what is their main complaint(s)?
c) What do you think motivated them write such an extensive review? (especially considering the fact that you and me typically don't do the same even when we are thoroughly satisfied or dissatisfied with the products that we consume.
d) What are the most apparent and some hidden motivations?
4) If you are a smart marketer (which you are!) (lets say the owners of the businesses listed on the respective pages), how do you deal with this information? What are your courses of action? More importantly, how do you engage with these potential 'influencers' so that you develop a steady stream of a positive feedback/WOM loop that will stay online and attract other consumers.
There is no mystery in social media marketing. This is what most companies ought to be doing. As Brian Solis summarized in Chapter 2: The five Ws+H+E (Please read the chapter)
Kathryn E- Poor overall job with the overall process. The filling was crooked and the job was PATHETIC! Personal blog includes food places in the Dallas area, Sushi bars and sleek places to have fun.
ReplyDeleteWalt-Felt the atmosphere was horrific and the owner was very rude. The service lady didn’t speak English and she made his girlfirends toenails begin to bleed. The experience was overall scarry. On his own personal blog he loves pizza and discussing salons, also fond of classy fun places to eat.
Angela- Overall the place was too loud, crowded, and the workers knew minimal English. She felt like she didn’t know what was going on and the performance on the toenail polish was sloppy- Originally from Dallas Tx and likes to discuss service places and markets, all over the U.S.
Abbey- Felt the place was too expensive, and boring. No extra massage was given and she would never go back. Originally from Boston, blogs about new cool places in Dallas, especially food joints. Enjoys more of the uptown style, and upscale places to enjoy food with friends and relax.
In each of these cases, I felt the customer was so dissatisfied that they just had to write about it to keep the place from making money. The service was horrendous and they could not bear to have someone else have the same experience. Most cases, if the service is bad and not terrible, we just blow it off and never go back. This case made it go to the next level because it was so brutal. I would say the motivations are very apparent, hate for the business and zero overall satisfaction. The motivation is to ruin the nail salon because the experience was so bad; the customers feel like they were mistreated and taken advantage of. The money was not worth the experience and they all felt ripped off.
If I owned the business, I would extend my apologies for the bad service and also offer a deal and some new bonuses to new customers and especially the past customers with bad experiences. First thing to do would be to reach out to the old customers by personal phone call and let them know that they are appreciated and a better service would be offered. To ensure the positive feedback, the employees would need to understand that the old way of doing things was unacceptable and the customer will be reimbursed for the past bad experience. Create a new atmosphere and really reach out to the old and new consumers and make sure they understand a good experience and great quality is our main priority.