Word of mouth on steroids

Many dealers say word of mouth is their best form of advertising, and social networking sites have heightened that form. While just consistently using social networking sites alone can boost your floor traffic, there’s a way to have more control over how fast the word spreads.

Take the basics of a referral program: a consumer comes in, buys something and says who referred them and that person gets a coupon for 10 percent off clothing, or something along those lines. If people are rewarded for spreading the word, they’re more likely to do so. Apply that same concept to your “fans” on Facebook. For every new “suggested fan/friend,” send that person a coupon for a small discount. You’ll not only get the original customer back in the store, but also some new faces.

With Facebook and other social networking sites, it literally takes seconds for them to spread the word to dozens of users. On Dec. 1, Facebook reported having more 350 million users, and the average user has 130 friends on the site. Even better, the amount of content people are sharing is increasing rapidly. During every single week of July, there were 1 billion pieces of content (Web links, blog posts, notes, etc.) shared between users. By the time September rolled around, that number doubled. As of December, on average there are 3.5 billion pieces of content sent in each week.

Recognize that if there’s a place to spread the word about your company, Facebook and other social networking sites are the way to go. Reward those spreading the word, and your brand will spread like wildfire. It will more than payoff.

Have you tried this or another tactic to generate more Facebook traffic?