Social media reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations have taken the world by storm. An incredible 49 percent of consumers report that they depend on social media influencers to determine what products they should buy. Also, 71 percent of customers say that they become more likely to purchase a product if it was recommended by others.
When looking at millennials specifically, 84 percent are likely to be influenced by user-generated content. That even applies when the user-generated content came from strangers.
Consider how web reviews might impact a hotel. If 8 out of 10 people comment that a certain hotel has excellent service and clean rooms, guests would probably feel more comfortable booking a room at that property over another hotel with a series of bad reviews.
How to encourage positive user-generated content
To build a strong portfolio of user-generated content, you must focus on building a strong community around your product or service.
Social media offers an excellent platform to accomplish this goal. For example, you can:
- Focus on creating a responsive social media strategy, where customers know they can ask questions and receive answers quickly
- Ask customers to create videos or take pictures of them enjoying your product or service
- Hold a contest that asks people to take pictures of themselves engaging with your product or service
- Ask followers open-ended questions related to your industry to encourage conversation
- Respond to any reviews or comments you see pop up so that people know you pay attention
- Repost positive reviews on your social page as both a means to say ‘thanks’ to the reviewer but also to call attention to the positive feedback
- Let satisfied customers know you are active on Yelp and Google My Business and that you would love their feedback
- Monitor and manage your reviews as they appear so that you know exactly what customers are saying.
Guests are seeking to find a balance of facts and opinions to select the best results for their needs. The growing trend of social media is allowing customers to easily base their own judgments off of others.
Here is our next blog about Top Business, Digital Marketing, and SEO Trends for 2021.
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Contributed by: Mariko Kato, Milestone Inc.
