Customer reviews are one of the power weapons in social network. Since customers and companies are connecting with multiple social media, customers have the control of what they think about the companies. Social media changes the relationship between customers and companies. In the past, customers have limited information about products and services which provided by the productors. But right now, people can share their experience about the products and services to public by using social media tools. These comments are much more powerful than what the companies said about themselves through other media channls. In other words, people prefer to believe others' reviews or comments rather than advertising.
In the book "Groundswell", the authors also points out five strategies for tapping the groundswell: listening to the groundswell, talking with the groundswell, energizing the groundswell, helping the groundswell and embracing the groundswell. Based on the power of social media, I think energizing the groundswell is the most important part for companies to tap their customers by using social media. In the book, it explained that energizing the groundswell means tapping into the power of word of mouth by connecting with, and turning on, your most committed customers. But it's not that easy. In order to succeed in this endeavor, companies should make effort to connect your brand's enthusiasts with your customers. First, tap into customers' enthusiasm with ratings and reviews. Second, create a community to energize your customers. Third, participate in and energize online communities of your brand enthusiasts.
Speaking of the interaction between companies and customers, the first one come out of my mind is socail media reviews. Reviews change the relationship between companies and customers. People can make any comments about any companies, products, services on any social media at anytime in anywhere. Consumers have gone social, and businesses are overwhelmed. With a Twitter, Facebook status update or instagram picture, customers have more ways than ever to publicly praise or criticize your business. Ron Kaufman, author of the New York Times bestseller "Uplifitng Service: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues, and Everyone Else You Meet", says customer reviews are more important than any marketing you could pay for because they're seen as more credible. He also says that businesses can take back the power and leverage social media for their own benefit. In his book, he mentioned that marketers should tell happy customers to go ahead and be social about their great experiences and encourage unhappy customers to come to you via social media so that you can make it right and improve your overall service.
There is an old saying that give people what they want. It's exactly what marketers need to do in social networks. Social Media is impending flood of customer unlikes.Many brands are now fouriously creating profiles in social media such as Facebook and Twitter in hope of building engaging communities with customers and giving people what the brands think they want. The main activity in this effort is to spur consumers to "like" and "follow" a brand's Facebook and Twitter streams. But it's not enough because sooner or later more and more people in social entworks will begin realizing that they hold control of their social streams and can simply unlike or unfollow brands that don't deliver values. So it's time for companies to rethink their approach in social media. Effective brand engagement is directly linked to the value customers take away from the branded social experience and how closely their expectations and desires are met. In order to connect with customers effectively, it's important to understand what customers want in social relationships.
Consumer reviews are incredibly important. Over 70% of consumers trust the reviews of others more than any from of advertising. It is clear that reviews are important, but what if your product or service receive negative reviews? I believe that many companies are afraid of receiving negative reviews. Consider of the power of social networks, negative reviews do can damage brands' image or even worse. However, how exactly people think about negative reviews. For me, I would like to view some negative comments as constructive criticism. So in my opinion, companies don't need to panic when you receive negative reviews because these reviews also can be very positive.Here are some positive effect of negative reviews.
1. Mitigate Skepticism
Consumers have been trained though experience, advertising, media, education, and many other external influences, to be skeptics of anything that appears to be "too good". While I certainly won't argue against the obvious value of receiving mainly positive reviews, the odd negative review can actually mitigate consumer skepticism by pointing out the flaws that exist in each product, service or anything they might be making a decision on. The end result is that consumers will be able to formulate what they feel about your product or service and will make their purchase decision with increased confidence.
2. Opportunity for continuous improvement
Negative reviews can function as a modern day comment box and provide you with valuable information and insight on how your company can be improved.
3.Create brand evangelists
Receiving a negative review can be a huge opportunity to convert those individuals into brand evangelists. Because of the inherent consumer skepticism that exist, if you are able to over-deliver on how you address a negative review, you have an opportunity to parlay that negativity into a huge emotional swing for the consumer and shift them toward becoming a brand evangelist.
4. Transparency
As a community manager, it is important to leave negative reviews visible for all to see. This demonstrates a willingness of your business or brand to be transparent with consumers, which will result in increased consumer trust, greater value given to positive reviews, and a perception of increased legitimacy of brand or corporate communications.
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