Push Customers Beyond the Like Button

Happy customers are more likely to push the Like button on your Facebook page than to write a review, according to results from a survey of American adults. The problem with this finding is that both your existing and potential retail shoppers are more likely to be influenced by even a brief customer review than by a tally of Facebook Likes.
     The project, sponsored by CityGrid Media and conducted by Harris Interactive, surveyed a nationwide cross-section of more than 1,000 adults. Overall, about 20% of respondents said they use the Like button to express praise for a local retail business, while only 13% said they write a review. About 25% of women use the Like button, while 11% write reviews.
     Push your happy customers beyond the Like button by making it easy for them to post reviews. Give shoppers materials they can take away with them as conversation starters. This is especially useful for newly introduced products and items for which the purchaser incurs monetary and/or self-concept risk. With ecommerce customers, make it easy for the purchaser to send on a URL to others to show off what they’ve bought.
     Along with this, use findings from marketing consultancy Harbinger about the ways people access and use recommendations. The Harbinger survey included 2,134 women in Canada and the U.S. through the Ipsos panel. I believe that many of the study trends would also hold for men.

• With a toy, about 20% will read reviews when shopping and about 10% will write a review after purchase. On the other hand, with an automobile, about 40% will read reviews when shopping, but only about 5% will write a review after purchase. With automobile-related products, your encouragement to women to give reviews will need to be more vigorous.
• For almost all product and services categories, family and friends were the most popular sources for recommendations. But for restaurants, casual acquaintances were the second most popular source, and for financial products, family and friends took second place to expert and professional reviews.
• For almost all product and service categories, consumers were motivated to give and post recommendations in order to help other people make smart purchases. With automobiles and entertainment, a distinctive motivator was for the consumer to display her expertise. With the home furnishings and food/beverages categories, a distinctive motivator for sharing was the opportunity to help improve the products.

Click below for more:
Attend to Face-to-Face Word-of-Mouth
Generate WOM in the Right Places
Encourage Specifics & Criticism in Word-of-Mouth