Who is Singing Your Praises?

September 14, 2010 at 3:06 pm · Filed under Branding, Social Media, Strategic Marketing and tagged: best practices, blogging, business advocate, integrated marketing, online referral marketing, social media, Twitter

Remember this if you remember anything about prospect conversion — Prospect-to-Lead, Lead-to-Client, CLIENT-TO-ADVOCATE. A business advocate is someone who speaks about you and your company on your behalf.

These are people who will sing your praises to others every chance they get because they have forged a solid business relationship and are very satisfied with your products and services – long-term business advocates.

By using digital marketing as a referral “platform,” online referral marketing can be much more rewarding than traditional face-to-face referral marketing. And, when used in conjunction with each other, it is even more powerful.

In the “olden days,” before the Internet was thriving, referrals were generated with an old-fashioned handshake to close the deal and then…they tell two friends, and so on, and so on – ahh, you remember.

Now, a simple, viral “check me out” will do the same and more. With Twitter, for example, you get to answer the simple question of, “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. Quite the challenge for those with a little more to say (ummm…marketers…).

However, you will find many “soon-to-be” business advocates who want to follow you to hear more about you and your business and to show you a good reason to follow them.

A few quick tips:

• Try to tweet 5 to 8 times per day or how often you can manage

• Use HootSuite’s to schedule your tweets and to track your tweet clickthrus for measurable ROT-Return on Tweeting

• Use one or more of the Twitter directories (WeFollow or Twellow) to locate potential users to follow based on their interests and geography

Learn more about the rules of Tweeting and its viral role in generating referrals, and with just one little tweet, you’ll be on your way!

With the vast number of social media channels, the opportunities for referrals are endless. Social media gives you a voice to speak and be heard.

You can post your referral advertisement online and track your conversion rate very easily. As you create satisfied customers, the referral cycle builds a larger circle of satisfied customers and business advocates.

It’s through meaningful engagement and the introduction of useful content in the right channels that will help you influence your audience and earn ongoing relevance and referrals. Visit Lacewing Communications and learn more.

Comments