What are social referrals? Really.

Social referrals are when you empower your customer to spread the word about your business, product or event to their friends and family. As a result, you get to enjoy more customers, more leads, a better reputation, increased customer loyalty and profit retention.

Customers are already seeking out the best deals through friends and searches. But, when you actively encourage social sharing, everyone wins. Your customers benefits because they get rewarded for sharing. Their friends and family benefit because they get a great deal. And you benefit because you get new customers. Something that makes that many people happy has to be good.

Facebook + Twitter = More Customers

It's simple math really. 90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know. Social networking now accounts for 22% of all time spent online. Till now, there was no real way to use social media in a way that you knew for sure it worked.

Integrated into the Expect Referrals platform, customers can share your incentives and refer you on their Facebook and Twitter accounts so there are an infinite number of people who will read about your program. Then, social viewers click on a unique link to sign up for your incentive. Thus making social networking trackable. Plus, you get reports so you can see who is recommending you and where. Pretty awesome, right?

You gonna argue with 96.8 million people?

96.8 million adult Internet users will use online coupons in 2013. With sites like Groupon and Living Social so popular these days, not only will those people use a coupon, they have come to expect them to show up in their inbox.

And they want discounts that match their likes and dislikes. Incentives, offers, discounts, coupons … Whatever you call them – consumers are looking for ways to get them.

What did they say?

The major problem with friends sharing is the lack of control you have over what they say about you. At the same time, you want to give people the freedom to share about you in their own words. The answer is a perfect combination of the two.

With Expect Referrals, you have control of the message so your brand comes alive when its shared and you get to make the kind of first impression you want while maintaining the personal nature of a friend sharing with a friend. And your customers get to add a personal message so the experience is still friends sharing with friends.

They tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on...

If you told everyone you know something, how many people would that be? Now, if you told everyone you know to tell 3 people about something that would be a whole lot more! This type of viral communication is the foundation behind social incentive sharing.

Put your customers on loudspeaker. Encourage and reward them for telling everyone they know what you have to offer. And let the process of friends sharing with friend catapult your message way beyond what you could do in a controlled marketing campaign.

Never choose for them.

With so many communication methods today, you just don't know which one will work. So, make sure to let your customers share with their friends every way possible – email, social media, mobile!

It's not just about using a coupon.

These days, times are tough financially for most of us. That's why couponing has come back in fashion. The method in which we now clip our coupons has definitely changed, but consumers are totally into the idea of using a coupon to get what they need.

Think about it – you want to go out for dinner. You are choosing between 3 places; the new Italian place down the street, a 10% off coupon for the local steakhouse you got in the mail or a 10% off coupon from a restaurant you received because your friend loved it. Which would you choose? A discount is preferred, but one coupled with a recommendation from a friend is a game changer!

Give credit where credit is due.

Don't underestimate the joy your customer gets from sharing a great incentive with their friends and family. They get to be a hero and help save them some money.

And that "good feeling" isn't wasted. It transforms itself into feelings of loyalty to your business. Which helps you out because it means return business and more sharing. Our advice – never take that for granted.

Open your doors and welcome them in.

A great offer most likely won't create a new customer for life, but it will tip the scale in your favor for that new person to at least give you a try. When that new customer comes to you to use their offer, this is your chance to roll out the red carpet and shine.

Honor their offer with delight, treat them as well as your best customer and make them feel part of your family. Besides becoming a new customer for life, they are also ready to start sharing with their friends. And the cycle continues.

The proof is definitely in the pudding

Good for you for asking that question. Great marketing ideas don't always apply to every type of business and every industry. It's always a good idea to question anything before you spend valuable time and money doing it. We have done the research and the statistics prove that social incentive sharing is working all over. Keep reading to see what we mean.

• More than 2/3 of consumer related economic activity in the US is driven by personal recommendations
• 90% of customers identify word of mouth as the best, most reliable and trustworthy source of ideas and information on products or services.
• 91% of consumers regularly or occasionally seek advice about products or services before they make a purchase.
• The average value of a referred customer is at least 16% higher than that of a non-referred customer with similar demographics and time of acquisition.
• It takes half the time to close an unreferred prospect as it does a referred prospect.
• 66% of consumers will use online coupons for at least 25% of their purchases in the next 12 months, a 20% increase from 55% who used online coupons for at least 25% of their purchases in the last 12 months.
• Groupon has 60 million subscribers and Living Social has over 20 million subscribers.
• 65% of adult internet users now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, up from 61% one year ago.
• As of 2011, there are 500,000,000 active Facebook users. Approximately 1 in every 13 people on Earth. Half of them are logged in on any given day.
• As of June 2011, Twitter reports over 200 million tweets everyday.
• According to Drew Houston founder of Dropbox, they increased their sign ups by 60% after they started their tell a friend program.

Bottom line... Friends do share with friends.

And, there are a lot of tools out there to help you benefit from that. But, it is hard. It can be frustrating and even unproductive. This small business owner puts it best:

That is why we offer you Expect Referrals, folks. We took out the part that was hard and left you with the part that gives results.

Probably not your Great Uncle Irving, but …

a lot of your customers will. Social referrals are not for everyone. (Just being honest here.) But, advertising your program, and we mean everywhere, will definitely increase the amount of people who participate. Consider how many times you forget really important things in life like taking the garbage down to the curb or scheduling your annual dentist appointment. Busy people need reminders to do things. Same holds true for referral campaigns.

Say one of your best customers come in to your store and after telling her about your program she says she has three people she would love to share with. But, before she gets home to do it, she has to stop to get gas, pick up the dry cleaning and grab dinner for the family. She would love a friendly email reminder because her head is now filled with other important things to-dos and she really did want the bonus incentive offer for referring!

Don't make them think

Links, links, links! Linking your customers to exactly where they need to go to share makes it super easy. Link them from right from your website. We will give you professionally designed buttons you can use.

Link them from anything electronic - an invoice, an appointment reminder, an e-newsletter. They are already on the computer so a link won't make them think.

E-nounce it with an email

Keep your program fresh in their minds with a short and sweet email reminder. Expect Referrals provides access to professionally designed email templates that you can customize and send.

Or use one of the other great email systems like Constant Contact or iContact. Or make one on your own. Bottom line is to keep reminding your customers of the opportunity so they keep participating.

Make them QRious.

Everyone is so busy these days. No one has time for anything unless they can do it on the go! With Expect Referrals mobile platform, they can share on the go. We will provide you a QR code that links directly to the mobile version of your sharing site.

Point of sale is everything in retail. The same is true for social incentive sharing. Think of it, your customer is about to check out when they see that can save 10% if they share with 5 people. They instantly go to your mobile sharing site, share with five friends, their 10% shows up on their smartphone and they use it for their purchase. The whole process works in just under 5 minutes!