Our 10 in 10 Series officially ended last Friday, but we thought it would be fun to provide a bonus post.  We approach social media as a place to be in community with your customers or clients.  It is a place to exchange ideas and a place to learn.  We also feel that social media is a great place for a product launch.

Proof?

Several years ago Jeff Bezos created an online market place called Amazon.  Each product had its own page and the ability for consumers to rate the product and provide a description of the pros and cons of each product.  Many marketing and sales experts declared that Amazon would never survive because of the negative ratings on some products.  Bezos stood firm in his position that good products would rise to the top while bad products would become marginalized.

Amazon had amazing foresight into what is now referred to as crowd-sourcing.  Using the collective wisdom of many people to determine a products worth or value.  At least once a week I go to Amazon to research a product and hear what others are saying.  There is a huge community of regular contributors on Amazon and they have proven to be a reliable source of product information.

What does this mean for you?

Social media is a great place to introduce new products or gain a larger audience for an existing platform.  Many companies have already seen the potential in providing free products to so-called “Mommy Bloggers.”  These (mostly) stay-at-home moms and some dads write popular blogs about the latest toys, medical treatments, natural remedies, and house cleaning devices.  The interesting thing is that these bloggers aren’t shills for the manufacturer, they are also critical of bad products.  Their readers are very loyal and some of the mommy bloggers have major sway over the success of new products.

It means that you should consider social media for your next product launch.  Giving away free samples to fans or followers if you have a small product is a great way to get buzz generated.  However, if you have a more technological or sophisticated product you might want to consider providing your product free of charge to some influential bloggers that can rate your product and talk about how they liked using it.

Nothing promotes buzz and goodwill like free products.  Our philosophy is that if you have a good product the vast majority of reviews will be good.  There are some people that only want to pick apart the flaws of new products, but they will be vastly outnumbered by the people that will objectively evaluate the products.

If you have a new product you would like to launch or an existing product that needs a little push, we would be more than happy to help you launch a product using a social media campaign.