I’ve been writing about the benefits of recommendation marketing compared to traditional interruptive marketing. Communication is a two-way street, and marketing is no different. Rather than a one-sided effort to push information to consumers, recommendation marketing effectively allows consumers to do the talking about your business. In this post, I’ll talk about the three factors that drive consumer recommendations: conversation, interest, and reviews.

1. Conversation
Conversation, interpersonal and via social media, is how trends get started. If a group of friends talk about a new restaurant downtown, I’m much more likely to go there than if I’d just seen an ad. Apply the same concept to marketing. Comments, likes, and follows are the conversation pieces of social media marketing. Get the buzz going by asking questions and posting frequently about what your company is doing. Unfortunately, there is no specific formula for the perfect conversation fuel; it’s mainly trial and error. Pay attention to what people respond to, and remodel your posts as you go.

2.Interest
Blogging and marketing expert Seth Godin uses the concept of “tribes” to explain how ideas are spread when people rally around the subjects/things that interest them. Your “tribe” isn’t limited to your clients and employees; it includes the people who are interested in the different aspects of your expertise: college students writing a resume, other temp staffers, or companies looking for better management techniques. These are the things your firm specializes in, and people will come to your site to learn from you if you make the knowledge available.

When you fill your online platform (social media, blog, and website) with remarkable, conversation-worthy topics that appeal to this crowd, they will want to share it. The hope is that one of their followers will be searching for a job, see the link to your firm, and visit your site.

Use these questions to identify the interests in your tribe:
Who might visit your website other than your immediate customers?
What common needs do those people have?
How does your area of expertise cater to those needs?

3.Reviews
The customer review holds a lot of power in today’s marketing world. Almost every website, from blogs, to online shopping, to entertainment, has comment boxes where readers can post what they liked or didn’t like about their experience. There are even whole sites dedicated to reviews: Yelp, Trip Advisor, and Rotten Tomatoes just to name a few. Make sure your firm is on business review sites, such as Glassdoor, and Yelp to increase your visibility and receive feedback.

Recommendations are valuable when they are used to their full extent. What strategies are you currently using to get people talking about your firm? Leave your comments and questions below.

ASJ Partners can help you get the recommendations you need to take your staffing firm from good to great. We’re experts at providing you with the tools you need to connect with clients and job seekers. Give us a call at 610-930-5300 or contact us today to find out more about this opportunity.