Digital versus traditional word of mouth marketing
Key takeaways:
Digital communication lives forever; traditional communication lives as long as it’s relevant.
You can control the narrative with digital communication; info can be lost in translation with traditional communication.
It’s easy to tag and involve other brands with digital communication.
Authenticity can be lost with both digital and traditional communication.
Word-of-mouth marketing has been around as long as people have. 100 years ago, people didn’t learn about a new business by seeing a commercial or happening to drive by it - they learned about it by talking.
Today we still talk, but in many different ways. We can communicate via phone calls, texts, video chat, email, social media, and the list goes on.
Verbal word-of-mouth communication is still so important, but digital word-of-mouth communication is, too! Let’s compare the two.
Word of mouth marketing lifespan
Digital communication lives forever (I’m looking at you Facebook Memories) or until it’s deleted. The great thing about having a digital record is that you can always find and access the information again. For example, if your friend posts an Instagram reel about the amazing new restaurant she tried, you can go back to her page two years later and watch her entire review to see if you want to make reservations or not.
Traditional communication is either passed from person to person or stops after the interaction. That means it could end immediately of live on in some capacity for an infinite amount of time. Unfortunately, there’s no way of knowing which will happen.
Control the narrative
When you post on social media or another digital channel, you can carefully choose what you want to say and edit the post if you make a mistake. You can even write a draft, walk away, and come back with a fresh set of eyes later. This gives you the ability to say exactly what you want to say, rather than tripping over words, forgetting a name, saying directions wrong, etc. like sometimes happens when talking face-to-face.
Did you play the game ‘telephone’ as a kid? If not, it’s where one person would whisper a sentence to the person sitting next to them, then they would tell the person sitting next to them and so forth. The last person had to say the line out loud to see how much it changed. Digital word of mouth marketing can eliminate the spread of lost and false information that often occurs with verbal communication.
Involve other people or businesses
The beautiful thing about digital word-of-mouth marketing is that you can open the conversation up to others. By tagging or mentioning others, you’re pulling new people and brands into a conversation that would otherwise not be present.
Digital communication also opens up the conversation to others with mobility and communication challenges, and those with geographical limitations. Modern technology allows for amazing things like clear video chatting from remote places, quick translation between languages, and an array of assisted technologies.
Digital is more sophisticated
Have you ever walked away from a conversation and couldn’t remember the name of the restaurant, website, or other info they just gave you? With information being at our fingertips whenever we need it, technology is changing the way we store knowledge.
Digital communication allows you to revisit the conversation or post and find the information whenever you want it. It also gives anyone the ability to tag brands, people or even link to websites so your network gets the information more easily.
Let’s look at an example from my own life. I buy all of my flour from Sunrise Flour Mill and have told countless people (let’s be real… probably 9-10 people) about them. To my knowledge, none of those people have given it a try or could even remember the brand’s name. I also posted a few stories on Instagram showcasing my baked goods and tagged the brand. A few people replied expressing interest in trying the flour and asking if I order online or find it in-store. I know at least one made a purchase and another thanked me for the reminder because they had wanted to try it but forgot!
reach varies for all word of mouth communication
Traditional word of mouth communication allows you to reach exactly who you want. Better yet, you can gauge your audience’s reaction and follow up with additional information. The bonus is who your audience tells!
When you communicate digitally, you cannot guarantee that the audience you want will see and/or take the time to consume your information. On the flip side, you might reach a entirely new audience that you never would have met offline - good or bad!
In the end, leveraging both digital and traditional word of mouth marketing are important for brands.
Authenticity in communication types
Here’s the tough one… which is more authentic: digital or traditional communication?
Digital
People tend to be more bold when they can hide behind a phone or computer screen. But does that mean they’re being more authentic? Not necessarily.
Social media influencers have muddied that water by going after paid deals. Some influencers are genuine and break their contract if they cannot wholeheartedly support the brand they’re creating content about, but others do not. It’s caused the public to lose trust in mega and celebrity influencers.
Smaller nano and local influencers, on the other hand, have maintained their reputation as being authentic communicators. Sure, some might have paid deals, but they’re on a much smaller scale, allowing them to pick and choose who they work with and what they say.
Traditional
This one is hard to replicate, it’s all about who you talk to and who you trust. For example, when Aunt Gladys tells you there’s a new restaurant in town you MUST try, because of your preexisting relationship, you trust her and you try it. It doesn’t get much more authentic than traditional word of mouth marketing.
