The Beauty of Social

One of the cool things about the internet is the ability to find things out.  Instead of just tapping your personal network, you can ping the internet and see if there is other information that you don’t know about.  This is intuitively obvious.  However, as the internet has developed, it seems like online reviews and suggestions are messy.  Is there are Yelp review that is less than four stars?  How many Amazon reviews are negative?

The other behavior the internet reviews seem to create is overly positive or overly negative reviews.  Extremes.

I think this is why word of mouth marketing becomes really powerful and gets more and more traction as we get bombarded with more internet noise. Brands must be genuine.  If they are fake the internet will uncover it.  Same goes with a lot of things.  If there are bats in the belfry, they will be released.

Here are a couple of examples.  I needed a couple of new pans.  A friend of mine who owns one of the top restaurants in the world recommends Made In. I surfed the net and found other people I like and some anonymous reviews like Made In as well.  I don’t know if they are investors in Made In or not, but it seems like the reviews say their stuff is pretty good and it’s at an attractive price.  I ordered a couple of pans.

I still haven’t received them, but maybe this week.  I sent them an email and complained a bit in a tweet over their slowness to fill the order.  I received customer service and an email acknowledging that they were having logistical problems due to high demand.  Their customer service even switched the place of delivery since I was changing locations between the time of the order and the time of delivery.  Of course, for Made In, this is a first-world problem that they are actively figuring out by hiring high-quality people to smooth their operations.  But, the brand was genuine, and hopefully, if I get my pans and like them I will recommend them to people too.  So far, they are being real and not “corporate”.

Contrast that experience with a company like United or some other big corporate.  What will be interesting to see is how Made In develops as their company grows.  Will the communication be the same or will it be filtered through lawyers?

Here is another example.

My sister was traveling to Singapore and India on business.  I happen to have a lot of friends in Singapore.  She wanted to know where to eat.  On a private Facebook group, I just posted, “My sister is traveling to Singapore.  Where should she eat.”  Bam.  Lots of great suggestions in a thread that I was able to cut and paste in an email to my sister.  She wound up going to Hawkers Food Court and had a spectacular time.  I thank that community for their suggestions.

Of course, the internet can bring a lot of noise.  But, it can be really helpful if you sift and use it right.