Word of mouth 'is biggest social marketing benefit'

17/07/2008

A new survey has revealed that businesses making use of social media marketing believe that increasing word of mouth is the greatest benefit offered by the channel.

Conducted by Beeline Labs, Deloitte and the Society for New Communications Research, the 2008 Tribalisation of Business study polled more than 140 businesses that make use of online communities for marketing purposes, potentially supplementing existing search optimisation strategies.

It found that 35 per cent believe that most of the value of these communities lies in word of mouth, followed by growing brand awareness, generating new ideas at a quicker pace and improving customer loyalty.

The survey also indicated that the biggest challenge for businesses implementing online communities is getting people to become involved in the project in the first instance.

"We've heard marketers say that their biggest challenge is executives' resistance because they fear losing control," remarked Lois Kelly, a partner at Beeline Labs.

"But this research indicates that this may not be as big an issue as marketers think."

According to Brent Csutoras of Search Engine Land, those engaging in social media marketing need to find the time to keep up with changes in the social networking sector or risk their strategies becoming obsolete.