Spread the Word!
Last week in the Marketing to Women 2.0 podcast series, Lisa talked about ‘her network’ and showed how technology and new media fuel word of mouth among young women. (Click here for show notes.)
In the podcast, Lisa explained how a young woman’s tight circles and loose connections equate to word of mouth on steroids. Being a 23-year-old connected woman, I thought it would be fun to show you what this looks like in action by giving you a quick introduction to my world on Facebook and then a glimpse into the ‘conversations’ that are taking place within the social network.
Of course Facebook is just one of many technologies and Web 2.0 applications fueling the current speed and power of word of mouth. However, as an innovative social networking platform, Facebook incorporates many Web 2.0 applications such as blogging, photo/media sharing and mobile access and therefore seemed like a good avenue for demonstrating the megaphone-like qualities of WOM within a connected person’s network.
From an outsider’s perspective, social networks and media sites like Facebook or YouTube might seem like another addictive online distraction that dilutes real life interaction and diminishes personal productivity. While I have to admit that I sometimes get sucked into the Facebook vortex—messaging friends, writing on their walls, viewing photos from their latest adventures, reading blog notes about their study abroad experiences, watching their favorite videos—the online social platform allows me to be incredibly efficient at maintaining relationships and sharing information with my network.
Instead of mass e-mailing a group of people whenever I have news or content I want to share, I can simply upload it to my profile on Facebook. My network (of approximately 350 ‘friends,’ which includes both close friends and acquaintances all over the world) will be alerted of my changes through the “news feed” and able to access it if they desire. (Assuming my privacy settings allow them to see it.)
I post a variety of items on my profile ranging from pictures of my Naked Girl Party (AKA Clothes Swap) to articles from the New York Times to videos of Flight of the Conchords performances. I have applications such as the the ‘Nike+’ Widget (not built by a Nike employee or affiliate), the Daily Show News, and the Super Wall, which lets friends leave videos, pictures or drawings on my wall. Once the content is posted my friends can then look at it, post a comment and/or share it with their network.
By adding content and applications to my profile, I’m telling people who I am—what I think is funny, what I find interesting, what I believe, what I support, what I care about, what I want others to be aware of. Knowing this was true for me, I decided to look at some of the content that my friends were posting to their profiles as it related to the topic of word of mouth. In about 20 minutes I discovered interesting information that my friends were sharing with their networks. (OK, so maybe I spent 30 minutes…)
In the next post I’ll share findings from my ‘research’ (I love my job) and provide examples of how women in my network are using Facebook and content to spread the word.
This post was written by Cassie Pruett
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