The social “world of mouth”

Aged care providers must get with the social media times now or else face the risk of losing their customer-base to their more tech-savvy competitors, a social media expert said at the Aged and Community Services Australia National Conference in Hobart today.

Director of Bendalls Group, Fi Bendall, advocated for the benefits of “social media for the social good” at the conference and explained the immediate need for providers to get up-to-date with new and emerging online marketing practices.

She said that conversations about products, like aged care, are taking place on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and various other sites. Unless providers promote positive messages about their brand via social media networks and tune into what consumers are saying about them online, they could fall well behind the eight ball.

“Social media is so powerful that you can reach so many people, even influential people such as the prime minister,” said Ms Bendall.

Word of mouth, she said, is still the most powerful marketing and advocacy method, and of course the most trusted form of referral (more so than advertising). Social media however, has revolutionised this traditional concept into what she termed “world of mouth”.

By going online and posting comments about products, people and philosophies, consumers now hold most of the control in the marketplace. Companies, on the other hand, are changing the way they do business in order to embrace this shift in power and the new way.

“Companies need to realise that markets are laughing at them.

“[Consumers are saying], ‘We have real power and we know it. We are watching but we are not waiting’.”

Popular social media sites, she said, have even surpassed Google as the nation’s research, marketing and referral tool of choice: “Social networking in Australia has overtaken Google and it has done that in the last seven months.”

Ms Bendall therefore recommends that providers should firstly create information on their website and then recreate it on YouTube, Facebook and other social media sites.

“Find people with the same interests as you, talk and let them get your message out.

“Don’t just facilitate communication…mediate it.”

The aim, she said, is to target one influential person who will post your message on their social media site. This will start a conversation about your issue between with their audience of many. The “world of mouth” flow-on effect will then be set to continue.

“That one person will be able to maintain 150 meaningful connections.

“It’s not about finding someone on Twitter with six million followers. It’s about finding people with 150 meaningful, similar connections…People like me, with people like you, with people like me.

“It’s not about influence, it’s about trust. I trust you to tell me the truth and every time we forward a message or re-tweet, we are re-trusting those same people.

“Share the message…own the destination,” she said.