Who Is Really Marketing Your Company?

Something just occurred to me. I've been learning about social media for a while now and I am always looking for ways to communicate to businesses why it's imperative that they should add this medium to their marketing plans. Awareness campaigns. Promotions. Target large audiences. Test the market. Yes, these are all good reasons, but I just realized what social media sites have really done to our society to make this strategy enormously effective:

Social media has turned the typical consumer into a marketer for products and services.

Congratulations! You are now in the marketing profession! With social media, word-of-mouth marketing has been amplified! Not just by sharing recommendations and testimonials, but also being able to easily provide links to videos, articles and websites for products and services.

If I were a business owner, I would be crazy not to participate in this on-line movement. Consumers are savvy! They want recommendations and information. They search for and read testimonials. If your business doesn't have an on-line presence in the places that your consumers are tapped into (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin), guess what happens? You don't get their business. And your company isn't promoted to the people that they know - which is an average of 250 potential prospects.

Consumers are marketers.

That means that every person that purchases from you is a marketing campaign for your company. Can you wrap your head around that concept for just a second? Has your cranium exploded yet? Talk about mind-blowing!

I'll let you sit with that thought for now. But before you jump in to the social media pool, let me know. I wouldn't want you to drown.