For brands, the ever-evolving role of social media in marketing has been fraught with missteps and miscalculations – the case of Union Street Guest House charging customers $500 for every negative review of its services posted online being the latest example. But Union Street Guest House’s faux pas points to an easily fixable issue within the social media marketing world: Instead of being afraid of the online review, the hotel – and brands everywhere — should embrace it.
Today, the voice of the consumer has never been more important: nearly 75% of all Internet users are active on social channels, according to a report from Social Media Today, and they are using the likes of Twitter, Instagram, Yelp and their preferred brands’ own websites to open dialogue on the quality of products and services and offer genuine suggestions and tips.
And if there’s one thing this social interaction makes clear, it’s that consumers have lost interest in the idealized ad campaigns that brands have created for their products. Instead, they want to know about the actual user experience which reviews provide, said Lisa Pearson, Chief Marketing Officer ofBazaarvoice, a network that authenticates and syndicates reviews for over 2,000 companies worldwide.
“Consumers are never going to need to rely on brands for information the way they ever have before,” Pearson said. “That moment is gone forever.”
In other words, brands don’t control the message anymore. Consumers have become the brand managers for the products they use.
For brands that still fear the negative review, Pearson said not to worry: People typically want to review products they’re excited about or offer genuine, helpful feedback. (Unless, of course, they have a truly horrible experience, a la Union Street Guest House.)
“Millennials in particular have grown up in a society that’s in perpetual beta, so products are never really finished and people expect to have almost ownership of products,” Pearson said. “People are going to share more and more opinions because they want products a certain way.”
To that end, Bazaarvoice offers clients a service called Curations, which compiles product reviews from various social media channels – including images from Instagram — and displays them on the brand’s or retailer’s website to make them easily accessible to potential customers.
But reviews don’t offer benefits solely to consumers. All of the feedback and consumer-created images provide a window into how consumers are engaging with products that marketers can run with — instead of turning a blind eye to the “24-hour digital focus group,” it’s time to begin incorporating user-generated comments and imagery into marketing strategies.
Bazaarvoice social media Cuaration
Consumer content is often more conversational and emotional than a typical brand website or product description. Integrating these images and comments “provides the authentic social proof that people are using and enjoying your products,” according to a report from Bazaarvoice.
“I think there are going to be all these cool things where fashion retailers who have stylists on the payroll are going to end up curating those images and overlaying consumer images with the ones the stylist created, I think we’re just seeing the very beginning of how smart brand managers and marketers will use visual to inform all kinds of things,” Pearson added.
Modcloth, an e-retailer that specializes in vintage and vintage-inspired clothing and décor, has certainly embraced the benefits of incorporating consumer reviews on its website. Users can easily attach a photo to their product reviews so prospective buyers have a visual of, say, how a dress fits different body types, or the size of a flower vase made of tea cups compared to a banana.
Nancy Ramamurthi, ModCloth’s CMO, said 60% of ModCloth reviews include body measurements and “many” have photos. As Ramamurthi noted, a person’s written review can only benefit from the “body context” provided by the images.
Echoing the findings from the Bazaarvoice report, Ramamurthi also noted that consumers feel a deeper connection to the brand when they can actually see other people wearing and enjoying its products.
“The additional benefit of allowing consumers to post their image in a review is that it helps to humanize the ModCloth experience and creates a sense of community and personal connection to the brand,” Ramamurthi said. “We’re a big believer in the importance of community and creating an emotional connection to our brand, so this is one of the threads we weave into the experience to deliver against that.”
Other retailers should take note.
Other retailers should take note.
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