Page 152 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

144 The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

online brand community (OBC) and found that the quality of the com-
munication exchanged between consumers reduced the level of uncer-
tainty about the firm and its products, which ultimately resulted in a more
positive attitude toward the firm and a greater intention to purchase its
products (both in terms of frequency and variety). Using a simulation,
Xiang and Gretzel (2010) found that in the travel area, search engines di-
rect potential travelers to social media sites to collect information about
travel destinations. Many of these sites contain documentation of user ex-
periences (e.g., Tripadvisor.com, igougo.com) and are a strong source of
WOM, serving to influence the traveler’s choice of destination.
Because companies can effectively “seed” social media sites (Kozinets et
al., 2010) by placing information about the product among influential
consumers so that they can communicate about it to other consumers
(Balter & Butman, 2005), the use of Web 2.0 applications (i.e., interactive
web sites) is clearly the trend of promotion for the future (Thackeray,
Neiger, Hanson, & McKenzie, 2008). The use of Web 2.0 social media al-
lows innovative marketers to engage their customers in the creative pro-
cess through interaction with other people, both like-minded and not. In
this context, the consumer is able to become the creator or co-creator of
marketing content through active participation instead of inactive recep-
tion. Although one could argue that companies should be careful in how
they choose to participate in social media so as not to be seen as shills—or
worse (see Kozinets et al., 2010)—their absence only allows for the mes-
sage to be completely controlled by the customer base, and this is one
form of uncertainty that seemingly should be regulated.

Conclusion

This chapter has shown that social media serves to amplify the impact of
word-of-mouth communication between consumers by providing a quick
and extensive network through which consumers can communicate with
each other and with companies. All indications are that this trend will
continue into the future as social media becomes an even more important
part of companies’ promotional strategies. Given management’s general
lack of control regarding what is said in public forums, it is important to
learn strategic approaches that can influence and shape such discussions
(Mangold & Faulds, 2009). A few of these approaches follow in detail.
First, it is important for organizations to develop networking platforms
that are designed to create communities of like-minded individuals
through forums or blogs. According to Makovsky (2012), businesses are
now in the minority if they do not blog, with 65 percent of businesses