Word-of-Mouth: Putting Engagement into Member Hands

The value of word-of-mouth efforts in the age of social. Plus: How social media has shifted the way we think about transparency—and what that means for your workplace.

Social media has this way of changing our lives in subtle ways—from the way word of mouth drives the way we act, to the way it changes our expectations.

A couple of examples of this in today’s Social Media Roundup:

Rally the Troops

Webinar recap: Learn how to use social media to boost voter participation. #assnchat  (opens in a new tab) http://t.co/gHBLdNG3CX  (opens in a new tab)

— eBallot (@ebvote) December 16, 2013  (opens in a new tab)

Call of duty: Trying to draw attention to a member initiative of yours? Word of mouth goes a long way, according to Votenet CEO Michael Tuteur. “People do what they see other people doing, especially people they know,” Tuteur writes  (opens in a new tab). The company, recapping a recent webinar, cites an example from the 2010 midterm elections, in which 280,000 additional people voted based on simply seeing an “I voted” update on a friend’s Facebook page. The net effect on member efforts could be similar—no matter the network. “We all know that word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective marketing—take advantage of that,” he writes. What sort of efforts have you made on social media to boost member participation? (ht @votenet  (opens in a new tab))

Transparency: It’s What’s for Lunch

https://twitter.com/hipdanielle/statuses/412562646123040768

Don’t snark on the sandwich: When Twitter launched, so too did the references to food we were eating—and the jokes about the food. But consultant Jamie Notter says there’s a method to the sandwich. We blast out bites of our personal lives—be it the articles we read to the ‘Here’s what I’m eating for lunch’ posts to share our lives. All that’s changed is the mode of communication and the reach. “Now that social media is mainstream, we have become used to this kind of transparency,” Notter writes on his blog  (opens in a new tab). And this philosophy translates to the workplace: Employees now expect to know more about the way the organization works. “We expect transparency. This is not because we are nosy or feel entitled. We want transparency because it helps us get the job done,” he writes. “It helps us trust. It frees us up from having to guess all the time.” (ht @hipdanielle  (opens in a new tab))

How do you promote transparency in your office? Tell us in the comments.

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