rubendua

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last decade, you’ve probably seen the reach of social media increase at light speed. Consumers and brands are voluntarily sharing knowledge and data to better understand each other through blogs and social media.

While some of the content and information generated through the internet are millions of cat videos, customers and brands are also sharing who they are and what they are planning to doing. Naturally, some of the generated content are their thoughts on products, or their desire to buy something. As this type of information increases consumers are more likely to refer to their social networks for more information on the product they intend to buy rather than searching for a product through search.

Search engines recognized that a long time ago, and most of them have already incorporated ‘personal’ into their platforms. Even when searching for a product with intent, it is extremely difficult to not be influenced by your social network.For example, Google gives higher rankings to results that have been shared within your network and Bing displays ‘social links’ when you do a search.

And of course, consumers are going to trust their social networks more than anything else; because their networks consist of the people they trust the most—friends and family. Social selling is the new word-of-mouth marketing.

Because you cannot afford not to. Consumers are spending more and more time on social media, and inadvertently some of the things they share are related to the products they like and what they are going to buy. This is a great place to engage new customers because the new customers are connected to people they trust and know.

The ability to engage potential customers through their connections give brands new marketing opportunities that are not available through traditional online advertising methods like ad banners or Search Engine optimization (SEO).   A study published by Booz and Co, lists some of the new opportunities that are added into the marketing funnel by social selling.

As social networking sites gain prominence as a new type of commerce, it is becoming extremely important for marketers and companies to develop an understanding of and start practicing ways to tap into that funnel. It’s critical for brands to jump in now even if they don’t have much expertise; because social commerce is evolving at a blistering rate. They must be willing to learn the process while they are doing it, or risk getting left behind.