Being absent on social media can increase mistrust
To understand the importance of social media we have to take a look at how consumers are evaluating brands and products and even the basic purchase process. The purchase process, because of the Internet, has evolved and has given consumers a lot more power. The more expensive a product, or the more a product requires a change in consumer behavior the more people are going to go online to research their choices. Let's take a look at this simple illustration I developed below:
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Awareness: TV and print maybe great for driving awareness to a mass audience but once that awareness reaches a certain level as measured by media studies continues use of this format for ads is not going to drive conversion and in fact studies have shown that once you reach a certain level of awareness you get a negative ROI by continuing with awareness campaigns.
Consideration: This is where a lot of brands fail to deliver. It's also important to remember that there is a direct correlation between the level of consideration and the investment in customers time and dollars. The higher the cost of the product the more scrutiny it will receive and the same can be said for products that require consumers to change their learned behavior such as going to a new computer operating system or a new cable TV company. In these cases even though there might be more value in terms of savings to the consumer they will balance this out with the amount of time they will have to invest to convert to this new behavior.
Consumers are also going to reach out to each other to see what others have said about the product. If there is a lot of negative buzz around your product it's going to defeat your whole marketing campaign. Sure there are still some people who don't go to the Web to research products but that number is becoming smaller and smaller.
Purchase: OK, so the consumer has made up her/his mind and is ready to go for it. The brand/product experience starts from the moment she/he places the order. If it's online the retailer had better ensure that the experience is a good one and thank the consumer for their purchase. eMail updates with shipping and order status are now SOP. Once the product arrives consumers will be evaluating everything from the packaging to the instruction manual. You don't have a second chance to make a great first impression.
Evaluation: So after everything is said and done would the consumer make the same choice ? If there are problems did the consumer get answers on his/her terms? The evaluation is an ongoing process that can last over the product life-cycle and is one of the reasons that brands need to provide the highest level of customer service available. The product can work and look good but if your customers can't get answers when they have questions they will go online and share their experience with others.
Before marketers didn't have to worry about the whole brand experience or if there were issues with customer service. Now , because of social media, it's as important as the product itself. This is why marketers have to ensure that execution on all levels of the purchase decision are in line with customer expectations not company expectations.
