Any experience a customer has with a brand can be shared online with a potential audience of millions, most of whom are looking for feedback from their peers.

The value in social media isn’t just marketing’s ability to publish content and share it with followers. The true value can be realized when customers organically advocate for your brand and promote you through their own social media channels. 

Brand advocates recommend their favorite products and services because they have had a positive experience and want to help others.

53% of buyers rely on peer recommendations before making a purchase decision. -Demand Base

Make It Easy to Engage

The key for marketing is to make it easy for advocates to generate content and provide feedback about your brand. Here are some examples of online opportunities that demonstrate the Voice of the Customer in an authentic, word-of-mouth approach:

  • Online product reviews: Highly positive online product reviews increase ratings, combat negative word-of-mouth, and improve SEO.
  • Customer success stories and videos: Testimonials boost awareness and brand reputation. It is the peer-driven evidence of a buyer’s journey that may drive new sales opportunities.
  • Online chats: Chat features, like those found on a company and a blog site, provide answers to a prospect’s questions that may increase sales conversion rates.
  • Tweets, Facebook, and LinkedIn: Posts and comments drive immediate and positive, authentic sentiment for your brand.
  • Online user groups and forums: Product communities provide a natural place for customers to meet, share best practices, and network with each other about your brand.
  • Blogs: Blog posts can be a natural progression of a brand advocate who is positioning themselves as a thought leader in a space or with technology. Blogs by thought leaders allow prospects to learn and reliably engage others.

Power of Social Media

Brand advocates are the ultimate trusted advisors, and they play a crucial role in enabling sales differently. This different kind of way is the next frontier in B2B sales: Peer-to-Peer Selling.

“Your best salespeople are not on your payroll. Your best salespeople are your customers who are willing to advocate on your behalf.”  -Jill Rowley, Social Selling Evangelist

Peer-to-Peer Selling enables deeper engagement and lessens content overload about your brand by providing the peer-driven evidence salespeople need to help the buyer progress through each stage of the buyer’s journey. Peer-to-Peer Selling enables this natural exchange of information.

The power of social media lies in an authentic, word-of-mouth recommendation from a trusted source – your brand advocates. Peer-to-Peer Selling results from brand advocates who are willing to share their positive experiences with their peers. Marketing can enable sales and impact results by helping salespeople bring the Voice of the Customer to their prospects.