Word-of-mouth in digital communities (social networks)!

Today, people are organized in social networks and can take action together. They can discuss isolated instances of bad customer experiences and place them in context. Thus, they express concerns and dissatisfaction more loudly than they have ever been able to. What is more, they can take action to challenge business activities and people in power. In the digital environment, the voice of a few can inspire and reach many. The facilitated (and constant) flow of information among different social networks makes the voice of every single customer that much stronger. This is where customer evangelism becomes critical.

The fact that the customer’s voice has gotten louder shouldn’t scare you. On the contrary, it should motivate you to be a better marketer. It highlights the idea that if your customers are happy, they will share satisfactory experiences with a broader social network and earn you more followers.

In fact, people who share positive emotions tend to have a larger following. (Tweet this)This premise is backed up by HubSpot’s social scientist Dan Zarrella’s analysis of over 100,000 Twitter accounts. Negative remarks, which included negative feelings and morbid comments, belonged to people with smaller reach.

Positive Comments Are Shared More Often

Positive remarks, on the other hand, are exchanged a lot more frequently. Zarrella’sresearch of linguistic content shows that positive comments are the second most shared item among Facebookusers. So how do you take advantage of this phenomenon? By encouraging your customers to become marketing evangelists.