How can you turn offline customers into online advocates?

Take a breath, blog readers. The truth is… not everyone cares about social media. In fact, quite a large proportion of a brand’s customers probably don’t give a monkeys about Twitter. Yep, even after all the hype, some people just like World 1.0.

And good on them.

The frustration for brands, of course, is that the advocacy of those customers who choose to chat in their living rooms and pubs isn’t as visible as that on Twitter or social networks or blogs.

Sure, their word of mouth is incredibly influential within their offline communities – friends, family, colleagues, passers-by. Brands must learn to value, listen to and engage with real world WOM as much as they do online. But wouldn’t it be great if businesses could find a way to do both: encourage existing consumer conversation where it’s happening but also give it a life in social media?

Some people don’t want to get involved with these tools, and that’s fine – but many simply aren’t armed with the skills or confidence to make the most of social media even if they wanted to.

So for our award-winning STA Travel activity, we took the idea of ‘social media advocacy’ and turned it on its head. Check out our case study below to find out how we do it.

Do you use any good strategies for amplifying face-to-face WOM online?

Brought into the world on Monday, August 2nd, 2010 and filed under Case Studies, Offline/Online.