Social Media Marketing has rewritten the marketing methods and theories like never before. Technology has enabled online marketing. When we refer to selling online we mean E-Commerce but when we refer to using Social Media Channels for marketing purposes we are essentially referring to advertising and marketing to customers through the different platforms.

Availability of multiple platforms, multi media options as well as various marketing tools makes Social Media Channels highly interactive with the customers.

Use of quantitative tools like Ratings, Reviews and Recommendations as well as other scoring methods like voting etc are highly beneficial in engaging the customers as well as getting to know what they think about you and your products and such feedback can be highly valuable to any marketer.

Recommendations

If you look at the way that we all behave while deciding to buy any product, you will see that invariably we wish to check with friends and family, especially with someone who has the knowledge of the product or has used the product to see what he or she thinks. In marketing language we call them the influencers. If someone you trust or someone who is an authority on the subject happens to recommend you a particular product, you are likely to go ahead and make that choice in favor of the recommended product.

In the case of Social Media Channels too, innovative options of Rating, Voting, writing Reviews and Recommendations are in vogue. Check out the various websites and channels and see the various kinds of options that are available for recommending a product. Popular methods used are very simple systems like clicking on Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down or using options like ‘Digg’ etc. Then there are the Net Promoter Scores too that are employed to show the degree of recommendation.

Recommendations from an already customer or an authority carries a lot of weight. From another view point, the number of recommendations can mean a higher rating too. When people start recommending your product and are ready to make their opinion known, you are building a community of people who are willing to pledge their loyalty to you.

Offering Recommendation option can send out the right message to the customers and those who are watching you online. Allowing the community to speak about you shows well on your part and adds weight age to your online presence as well as reputation. Just like how the referral system works in case of pharmaceuticals and other products, recommendations too add weight age to your product in the particular category.

Now days all product catalogues and online selling sites provide recommendation options as a standard tool while many other sites offer voting options. Voting can be used in lieu of rating or recommending a particular product and one can also use description based voting too. Recommendations can also be qualifying in the form of - Recommend, Highly Recommend and so on.

Those who are learning about Social Media Channels and marketing will also do well to know that there are several agencies and professional content providers who are available for writing reviews and recommendations etc on commercial basis. Using such methods to augment the ratings and reviews will not pay in the long run for the user community is smart enough to realize the same in no time. The paid for content can easily be detected by an experienced blogger or surfer. Such gimmicks will bring down the online reputation of the product and the promoter over a period of time. Social Media Channels are very conscious of the social mannerisms, online behavior as well as ethical and moral standards that are upheld on the various platforms.