She was greeted with over 15 responses ranging from, “Oh you’d look darling in skinny jeans” to “have you seen the super dark rinse skinny jeans in the new J Crew catalog?” to “I think I’m going to let that fad pass me by, my thighs and skinny jeans just don’t agree with each other,” to “try tucking them into boots.”

Inside the meteoric rise and phenomenon of social media there is a simple aspect of communication that can teach those of us who create traditional media to reach out in a more conversational tone.

I’m talking about capitalizing on the “trends from friends” form of how people are now communicating. The first time I heard the term “trends from friends” was from Steve Rubel, director of insights at Edelman Digital in an editorial piece for Advertising Age.

Rubel’s phrase, “trends from friends” sounds kind of familiar and reminds me of the much older, well-worn phrase “word-of-mouth”. As in, “Sorry, we don’t need to advertise because we get great word-of-mouth from our customers.”

The reason word-of-mouth still works is because it’s coming from someone you trust in a form you can quickly and comfortably understand. But we all know you can’t wait for old fashioned word-of-mouth to get your product to fly off of the shelves. You have to start the conversation.

Another AdAge contributor, Marsha Lindsay recently wrote, “Traditional media can do what social media cannot: aggressively interject messages into people’s lives in a socially acceptable way. Research conducted by the Advertising Research Foundation indicates that messages delivered by TV may, in fact, be the fastest and most cost-efficient means to jump-start productive conversations in the digital and real worlds.”

So find a media outlet that you know works in your community and start having a real conversation with your potential customers. Lindsay suggests, “…Spark and fuel conversations with surveys, forums, contests and invitations for contributions that pertain to the change your brand’s products and services can help people achieve…”

Once you get the ball rolling, and a conversation started, jump into the social media game yourself with more fresh content in blogs, contextual ads, and video on your website.

Hopefully consumers will take over the conversation for you, making your marketing even more meaningful and efficient. Then, put your feet up on your desk, lean back and claim to all of your solicitors and competitors that, “You just rely on great word-of-mouth.”

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