Leadership

Online ads are becoming painfully annoying, and more people have gathered a sort of instinct to immediately close out of the obvious ads. With the arrival of interactive social media, word-of-mouth marketing has also evolved, and new social communities have emerged in the online world.

The role of social media, online presence, and word of mouth are becoming essential to strong business cash flow for local and national businesses. Social media posts aren’t just for individual people with a personal agenda. Social media as a whole has come to play an increasingly crucial role for businesses, marketing, and social society. The online world can make or break a business reputation in a matter of minutes.

Marketing and Current Issues

The way current issues are handled can blossom or mangle reputations. In government, public administrators fill the role of making sure departments are not only well understood but well-funded in future election cycles. How public officials choose to communicate with an angry public about relevant issues requires unbiased skilland balancing what the public wants to hear versus how much can actually be done.  

Marketers can find that combining word-of-mouth, peer-to-peer programs and more activity related marketing (like customer reviews) will leverage the overall impact of their marketing efforts.

When it comes to taking advice on what to purchase and where, people are more easily influenced by personal friends and family. Taking advice from what is displayed in a news feed is becoming more common in social media, especially when a friend shares it. When a company targets a fan base the word can spread like wildfire reaching hundreds, or sometimes even thousands of viewers.

Joining the Club 

For marketers, this is the first time they’ve been able to readily plug-in to the real, uncultivated, word-of-mouth conversations of the consumer.

Concerns, questions, opinions, likes, dislikes — these have all been pushed into the public space, leaving marketers with a goldmine of information, ripe for exploration and exploitation. 

This data is allowing digital marketers to quickly predict where their target audiences are headed. According to Villanova University, “[social media] allows brands to converse with their target audiences in real time, engaging in conversation rather than simply broadcasting messages that may or may not be relevant to consumers.” They can tap into open communities like Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook to see what a wide array of people are talking about, while collecting invaluable facts and figures along the way.

Ten years ago, this kind of consumer information would not only be far more costly and cumbersome to obtain, it would almost assuredly be gathered using tiered market research techniques. These techniques don’t offer the same truthful transparency of naturally occurring word-of-mouth.

Today, marketers can obtain real-time insights by using social media to tap the word-of-mouth musings of nearly any demographic they might be trying to reach across the globe.

Is It Reliable?

Whether it’s being used for marketing, sales or something else entirely, oral communication has been the primary method of discussing and describing all matters of significance (and insignificance) in communities across the globe. But while the power of word-of-mouth marketing remains unchanged, the means in which we take advantage of it has. The internet, above all, has radically transformed how we utilize communication as a means of marketing. 

When it comes to making buying decisions, people turn to their community for recommendations before purchasing any kind of good or service. Consumers will default to the opinions of their friends, family, colleagues, and social peers with far greater frequency than they’ll listen to even the most polished marketing pitch. And to be fair, why wouldn’t they? It’s the marketer’s job to become a trusted source.

With the amount of content (digital or otherwise) besieging consumers on a daily basis, how can they be expected to distinguish the good from the bad or the false from the true? This is where word of mouth marketing gets a second take; it jumps, and it feels more genuine.

Summary: Learning how to motivate your team isn’t always easy, but these methods will give you several different ways of inspiring your employees to do more.

Getting your team motivated to achieve better results isn’t always easy. However, since your employees are your biggest resource, it’s important to know how to encourage and inspire them to go beyond what they’re doing. Fortunately, motivating your employees is actually easier than you may think, and it often costs you nothing. In fact, some of the ways to motivate your team will also improve other parts of your business. Here are some of these motivational methods.

Have Clear Goals

It’s hard to motivate anyone if it’s not clear what they’re supposed to be motivated to do. By setting clear goals and having a vision of where your business is going, it’s much easier for employees to see what they’re working towards. If your goals are also measurable, they will be able to see what progress they’re making, which can serve as a way of motivation, too. Rather than saying you want to bring in more clients this year, state that you’d like to grow your customer base by 20 percent. When you hit that number, your team can celebrate a job well done. They may even be motivated to blow past that goal, too.

Recognize Your Employees

When someone goes above and beyond, make sure they’re recognized in some way. This doesn’t always mean a company-wide awards ceremony, but you should certainly think about doing that once or twice a year. Sometimes, simply telling someone they’ve done a great job is all it takes. Recognition does more than just motivate people—it helps create a bond between you and your team. It also makes your employees feel more appreciated and accepted at work. People have a basic need to be recognized and appreciated, and it’s important that you fulfill that need.

Share the “Why” of it

Taking a few extra minutes to explain why something is important makes your employees feel like you’re treating them fairly and giving them more ownership of a project than simply telling them to go do certain tasks. They see why what they’re doing is important, even if it’s a menial task or a very meticulous one that they don’t enjoy doing. It gives your employees a big-picture perspective, and that can actually help motivate them to accomplish low-level tasks that no one really wants to do. However, since they will see how that onerous task fits into the project and understand the reasoning behind why it must be done, they will be more willing to take it on.

Give Your Team Autonomy

No one wants to be micromanaged or have to fill out multiple forms just to get one small thing approved. The more autonomy you can give your team, the more likely they’re going to feel motivated to take ownership of the project and get it done quickly. Of course, there are some people who do need more supervision than others, but once someone proves themselves, step back and let them handle things on their own. Trust them to get the job done. Rather than micromanaging, spend that time gathering information and resources your team needs to get things done.

Be Your Team’s Biggest Cheerleader

You always want your team to feel as if you’re their biggest cheerleader. You always want to back them up and be there for them when things get tough. Part of this is giving them the recognition they deserve, but there’s more to it than that. You also need to show that you’re willing to help them grow and become more than what they are.

One way of doing this is to bring in motivational speakers. These speakers can help motivate your team in a number of different ways. Some may help them discover skills they never knew they had. Others might help them learn how to be more effective communicators, a skill they can use in all parts of their life. Bringing in speakers to help your employees grow as people, not just as workers, is a great way of showing them that you see them as more than just a person doing a job.

Don’t Focus on the Negative

When providing feedback, your first instinct may be to focus on the areas where an employee needs improvement. However, this can often come across as a negative conversation. Your employee may feel as if you’re coming down very hard on them, and that can sap their motivation. Instead of providing nothing but negative criticism, be sure you always take time to discuss a person’s strengths and their triumphs. Let them know what they’ve done that’s amazing. Point out their positives and talk about what they bring to the team. Constructive criticism is important and it does help your employees see what they need to work on, but never provide nothing by negative feedback.

Don’t Be Afraid to Try Something New

One way to motivate and excite your employees is to change things up a little bit. Just because you’ve always done something one way doesn’t mean it can’t be done differently. Giving your employees projects that are different from what they normally work on can excite them. It can also help them learn new skills and how to use resources in a different way. Sometimes even changing up the décor in the conference room or taking your team out to lunch just because you feel like it can feel like a major change and spark creativity and motivation.

Communicate with Your Team

Communication is a key element of just about everything we do in life. Do you know how each employee feels? Are they happy with their job? Do they have any issues with coworkers or their supervisors? Do they actually enjoy working at your company? If not, what can you do to change that? Don’t simply let an employee suffer. Maybe they should move to a different position or department. Maybe you need to provide them with new challenges or with training courses to help them develop new skills. Be willing to step up and help each employee find their happiness.

These are just a few ways you can motivate your employees and improve their work efforts. Not every method is going to work for every employee, though, which is why you must discover what motivates your team and what doesn’t. It’s a bit of trial and error, but in the end, you’ll find that a motivated team is worth the effort.