"What's the significance of social media to marketers?" It's a question we're all asking ourselves!

There's no glib answer to this, because it's such a newly emerging phenomenon, everyone's still learning.

But a book I'm currently reading has helped me to clarify just what it is about the social web that's so exciting.

For a long time I've been frustrated about why it is that so many businesses don't seem to care about their customers once they've made a purchase. Many small businesses spend all their marketing budget on getting new business and pay little attention to what happens after people buy. In larger firms, the trouble is that the marketing department traditionally has no influence over operations or after-sales service. So there's often a disconnect, a missing link.

Now, among the marketing theories still taught is the AIDA model of buying behaviour (and variations thereof) - Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action. But something crucial is missing: what happens after someone buys? How does it affect other people's buying behaviour? We've all heard the saying 'a happy customer tells one person, but an unhappy customer tells 10'. Word of mouth and the opinions of those we respect tend to be important considerations when making a purchase.

What has happened is that the rise of online social networks has meant that good old 'word of mouth' is now amplified to such an extent that marketers can no longer ignore its role in the buying cycle.

In his book Social Media Marketing, an Hour a Day, Dave Evans presents an elegant diagram to illustrate this, showing the journey from awareness through to opinion forming and sharing.

Up until the point of purchase, you could say that the marketer is in the driving seat. But afterwards, the customer is in control. Their opinions - in the form of comments, reviews, ratings or other content on websites, blogs and social networking sites - feed back into the consideration phase of new purchasers. And if that customer is active on the social web, his or her influence will be considerable.

It's important to remember we're not just talking about Facebook or Twitter. If you read customer reviews on price comparison sites, if you've ever voted in a website poll or commented on a story you've read ... you're on the social web.

The press like to focus on the lunatic fringe of what's new in order to get strong reactions from readers: outrage, incredulity, fear or laughter. So perhaps uninformed reporting is to be expected. The social web is new, unpredictable, threatening ... its impact on the broadcast media is only just hitting home, and many people don't like the way things are going.

Give it a few years though, and the question "What's the significance of social media to marketers?" will be as obsolete as "Does a business need a web presence?"

Robin Houghton is a director of Eggbox, an online marketing agency based Lewes, East Sussex, UK. She was Nike's first UK Women's Marketing Manager and spent ten years in product marketing and communications for both Nike and adidas international. Based in Germany and then the US she was responsible for product ranges for the European and Asian markets.

www.eggboxmarketing.co.uk