Consumer conversation and engagement are increasing in value as a new era in marketing emerges. Consumers are empowered to be their own Private Eyes – dig deep to find true value via reviews, free reports and blogs. Consumers are turning to word of mouth (via the web) as a valuable resource to make purchasing decisions. Access to communication tools on the web have amplified the importance and influence of word of mouth. Though it’s not possible to transition all of your marketing efforts to a viral campaign on YouTube, companies are realizing the power of product / service value and their communication with influencers.

To elevate your word of mouth efforts, we are going to take a look at how to effectively speak with influencers:

Buzzworthy Product

The first step to generating buzz, is to have a compelling product that adds value to the market. It’s all about “earning” the buzz through great products and experiences. Do your market research, crunch the numbers, do whatever you have to to find a market need. Nothing is more wasteful than creating a generic product with little to no value. Influencers will not respond positively to an average, mundane product / service. If your product has value, it will earn its stripes through word of mouth. Value is essential in generating buzz.

Engaging Buzzing Influencers

When engaging influencers, identify the right target person / group to talk about your product. If your product / service is not relevant or important, it will fall upon deaf ears. Go big then fine-tune your target. Identify the market, then the key players within it.

Once you have a shortlist of influencers, you can develop a strategy. For example, if you’re launching a new iPhone app, you should consider influential blogs such as Mashable, RWW or the iPhone App blog. Once you’ve decided on a shortlist of blogs, what are their passion points? Mashable is geared towards social media, covering a swath of topics, whereas iPhone App is very specific. Now you have the key players, how are you going to…

The development of new online destinations for information sharing and interactive communication by and between family and friends as well as professional associates is consistently cited as the driving force behind Web 2.0. Termed “Social Media”, the trend has created abundant opportunities to distribute high quality health and disease education content, while creating community and entirely new opportunities for collaboration between your business and its customers.

One of the web’s most recognized information sources, Wikipedia, defines “Social media marketing” as a term that describes the act of using social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other collaborative Internet form of media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr and YouTube as well as many independent subject matter blogs. In the context of Internet marketing, social media refers to a collective group of web properties whose content is primarily published by users, not direct employees of the property (e.g. the vast majority of video on YouTube is published by non-YouTube employees).

To capitalize on this emerging trend, your business needs to develop a comprehensive Social Media Marketing strategy. By developing and implementing a carefully planned social media strategy, you can take advantage of current media trends, to accomplish multiple objectives including broadening the reach of your brand and providing an interactive platform for communication with and between your business and your customers.

As with all things web, things change rapidly and having and maintaining active “Social Media Marketing” strategy takes work and cooperative effort from multiple areas of the your organization including management, operations, and communications. Through minimal effort you can yield extraordinary results and form an effective plan for increasing site traffic and brand awareness for your business

Development of the your business’s social marketing strategy is suggested as the first step in defining an online media plan to boost your online marketing efforts. While social networking sites offer access to millions of targeted individuals, it should be viewed as a tool for driving traffic to corporate owned sites such as.ORG and.COM where similar features could be incorporated and where you can guide the visitor experience in a way that creates a deeper more meaningful engagement between your business and the customers.

Establishing a close engagement with your customers through social Marketing, ensures your business truly understands what they want and need. Truly the easiest way to sell is to find out what your customers truly want and need, then offer it to them at a competitive price. The opportunities are boundless, with the right strategy, you can be making customers for life, every time you tweet.