Are You Talking To The Boomers on Facebook?

If not, or if you are on Facebook but not working your Facebook business page then you need to read on. If you are in the business of retirement, residential or independent living aged care services or community based care services you need to be on Facebook or you are not reaching your target audience.

In  just five years, close to 50% of the U.S. population will be 50 and older and they will        control 70% of the  country’s disposable income. Australia shares many of these characteristics. Seniors and boomers are savvy and, they are online checking you out!, Oops.. sorry you are not on Facebook talking to your consumers, well then they are checking out your competition.

Why aren’t you on Facebook talking to your consumers?

You don’t have a business Facebook page for your senior care Service or community engagement because you lack the time or you believe that it does not work. If you are one of these leaders then you should read on to see why you need to get started on Facebook now!

You Don’t Believe Facebook is a Value Proposition For Your Business

You don’t believe in Facebook or you don’t have the time or staff to waste on social pages. You justifiable say you are busy looking after the business and responding to your customers, family and staff. Day-to-day management of any aged care business is demanding and needs constant attention. With everything happening in the industry on a day-to-day basis you just don’t have the time or the staff to deal with Facebook.

Consider Revising Your Position.

The Boomers represent 20% of ALL online traffic and are spending almost 100 hours a month online.

Between 2008 and 2010, social networking increased nearly six fold among seniors, from 4.7% to 28%. eMarketer forecasts social network penetration will rise to 36% by the end of 2013.

Plus - a whopping 72% of Online Baby Boomers visited Facebook in the last month. This represented almost a fifth of all page views. If you aren’t marketing to these groups you are missing out on a big opportunity. Source: Nielsen Online Ratings

Not sure if Facebook really works?

There is no doubt that younger generations are the first to adopt new technologies and platforms like Facebook, but once they go mainstream, it is the Boomers' adoption that is driving the real growth of technology. The Boomers have always embraced science and technology and are using today's Internet-linked products to enrich their lives by staying connected, socializing, shopping, entertaining themselves and researching information on topics of interest.

While boomers and seniors are slower to adopt the new technologies, once they are mainstream, it's the Boomers that buy in. Internet penetration will increase steadily as more tech-savvy boomers become seniors. By 2015, eMarketer forecasts, there will be over 26 million senior Internet users in the US alone. Overall, 60% of seniors (those aged over 65 years old) are online now, that's more than 20 million Americans, according to Forrester.

According to the (ABS) in 2009, nearly half (47%) of Australian older persons used a computer at any location in the previous 12 months, compared to less than one in three (29%) in 2003. These Australian statistics track in the same direction as the US and indicate that use of Internet to meet the needs of the older person is growing faster than any other age group.

The report shows that 49% of digital seniors in the US are using Facebook. It also shows that:
- 91% of online seniors use email
- 59% have purchased products online in past three months
- 46% send/receive photos by email
- 44% play solo games online
- 24% sign up for coupons/freebies

Your target audience is using Facebook, but more important is the fact that the family members of your target audience are using Facebook and other social platforms in much bigger percentages than ever before. These people are using Facebook and other social media platforms to interact and learn about the care or service you are providing their parents or grandparents. They want to see what you organisation or company is like. They want to know how well you communicate with them and what information and resources you provide to support them in their decisions. In order for you to build a relationship with them you need to open the communication channels and allow them to see your organisation and reach out for more information as and when they need it, often in times of urgency.  

Are you open and sharing with your Facebook page? 

 

If you are providing meaningful,  two way communication half of your sell is done for you by the time your service is needed. Your social media strategy is your most valuable and affordable marketing tool. It's not good enough to simply put up a page and post snippets and pictures to it. One way communication does not tell your future or current audience and staff that you are open and transparent.

 

Two way communication is the key to a successful online strategy.

Very few organisations are engaging in two way communication and doing it well. Those that are doing it are proud of how many likes they have, they are disciplined about posting to the site regularly and they respond to staff and consumer comments quickly.

The more the family members that engage in your Facebook posts the more people will see it. That is what happens to your information or “posts” on Facebook. The more interaction you have on your page, the more people like your page, the more people see it. It just keeps on growing and growing. For example, if you have 1000 Facebook business page likes, friends of theirs see your posts, and friends of their friends also see your posts, and friends of friends of friends see your posts! Wow! That may equal 100’s of thousands of views! No paid advertising campaign can get you that many views.

Your Competition Is on Facebook – And, while only a few are providing two way communication right now, it is only a matter of time before the others catch on.

So the big question is – Is your service on Facebook and positioned to compete?

 

Want to know why things go viral? Why some products get more word of mouth? Let me tell you a secret. It’s not luck.
Viral has become marketing’s Holy Grail. From the Harlem Shake to the Rutgers basketball coach abusing his players, hardly a week goes by without some video or news story going viral. And word of mouth and virality have a huge impact on businesses, large and small. Blender company Blendtec’s sales shot up more than 700% a few years ago after videos of the CEO blending things like iPhones spread like wildfire. But what makes something go viral?
If you ask most social media “gurus,” they’ll tell you it’s all about getting lucky. Viral isn’t a strategy, it’s like buying a lottery ticket. Or they’ll talk about cats. Lots of people share videos of funny kitties, so cats must be the reason things go viral.
All these theories are great, except, well, they’re not really backed up by anything. No data. No analytics. Just old fashioned guesses based on looking at a couple particularly noteworthy successes. It’s like the idea that the Earth was flat. It seemed right until someone actually looked deeper and showed, well…it wasn’t.
Virality isn’t luck. It’s not magic. And it’s not random. There’s a science behind why people talk and share. A recipe. A formula, even.
My colleagues and I have analyzed thousands of news articles and hundreds of brands, all to understand why some make the most emailed list or get more word of mouth. Again and again we found the same principles at work. Six key drivers that shape what people talk about and share.Those six principles are the basis of my new book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, and the first principle is Social Currency.
New York City is a tough place to open a bar. Competition is fierce and it’s hard to cut through the clutter. There are dozens of options around every corner.
But a few years ago Brian Shebairo launched a place that’s been packed since the day it opened. In fact, it’s one of the most sought after drink reservations in the city. Bookings are only available day-of and people frantically hit redial again and again hoping to snag a spot. Yet he’s never advertised the bar. Never spent a dollar on marketing.
How did Shebairo do it?
He hid his bar inside a hot dog restaurant.
Walk into Crif Dogs in the East Village, and you’ll find the most amazing hot dog menu you’ve ever seen. A Tsunami dog with pineapple and green onions, a Chihuahua dog with avocado and sour cream, and a Good Morning dog wrapped in bacon, smothered with cheese, and topped with a fried egg.
In one corner, off to the side, is an old-school phone booth. One of those rectangular numbers that Clark Kent used to morph into Superman. Walk inside and you’ll see a rotary dial phone on the wall. Pick up the phone, and just for fun, dial the number 1. Someone will pick-up the other line and ask you if you have a reservation. And if you do, the back of the phone booth will open and you’ll be let into a secret bar called, of all things, Please Don’t Tell.
Has Please Don’t Tell violated traditional “laws of marketing?” Sure. There is no sign on the street and no mention of it in the hot dog place. In fact, they’ve worked hard to make themselves a secret.
But there’s a funny thing about secrets. Think about the last time someone told you a secret. Told you not to tell another soul. What’s the first thing you did with that information?
You probably told someone else.
And the reason is something called Social Currency. People talk about things that make them look good. Sharp and in-the-know. Smart and funny rather than behind the times. If people go to a place like Please Don’t Tell, or even if they just hear about it, they tell others because it gives them status.
Social Currency isn’t just about hidden bars. It’s why people brag about their thousands of Twitter followers or their kids’ SAT scores. Why golfers boast about their handicaps and frequent fliers tell others when they get upgraded. McDonald’s used social currency to help the McRib sandwich take-off and RueLaLa used it to turn a struggling website into a $500M business.
Want to generate word of mouth? Get people talking about you? One way is to give them a way to look good. Make people feel special, or like insiders, and they’ll tell others—and spread word of mouth about you along the way.
Along with five other key principles (STEPPS: Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, and Stories), Social Currency is a sure fire way to generate buzz. Will following these six principles guarantee that 10 million people spread your message? No. But it will increase the number of people who pass it on. Encourage people to tell two friends instead of just one. It’s like a batting average in baseball. No one hits a home run every time, but by understanding the science of hitting you can boost your average.
The next time someone tells you that going viral is about luck, politely tell them that there is a better way. Science. Word of mouth isn’t random and it’s not magic. By understanding why people talk and share, we can craft contagious content. And use it to get our own products and ideas to catch on.
Photo: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images

Jonah Berger is a Marketing professor at the Wharton School. Want to learn more about why things go viral? Check out his New York Times bestseller Contagious: Why Things Catch On. Follow Jonah below to stay up-to-date with his articles and updates!

Is Social Media The New Call Centre?

The Real Value of Social Media Customer Service

Are you ever frustrated with call centre delays, being put on hold, getting cut off, being diverted to several lines before you get to who you need to speak to resolve an issue? How do you feel about talking to the recording that rarely interprets your verbal three word prompt correctly and ends up diverting you to the wrong department for your query? Or even worse, you just can’t get through because they are experiencing above average call volume - that never seems to stop.

As the business landscape changes and technology and social media develop, will social media be the new five star standard in customer service delivery? Think that sounds outrageous, think again, it has already started.

Big business are converting more prospects into sales through social media than ever before, online sales in most categories are growing at remarkable rates. Instant response customer service is an expectation and consumers want customer service delivered in their communication landscape. People of all ages are spending more and more time on social media, globally consumers are taking the social experience mobile and predictions are that this shift will surpass all expectations over the next few years.

Brian Solis, author of The End of Business as Usual predicts, “2013 will bring about an expansion in social media beyond a marketing and engagement philosophy to that of oneness. Social media strategy will start to take a more integrated approach where social media becomes an extension of important channel strategies and business functions. It will be driven by a holistic effort where enterprise, business and functional strategies work to accomplish business objectives while meeting the needs and expectations of employees and customers”.

 This means business must prepare to have conversations with consumers on their terms.

Social media provides business with the opportunity to demonstrate the professional status of your company or organisation. It is a listening opportunity, a chance to talk with your consumer or potential consumer, and it is an opportunity to engage those who are likely to want or need what you offer. Using social media you can establish a relationship that meets the needs of both parties. You can educate and inform potential buyers and reach a much larger market than traditional marketing platforms in a more personal way.

Conversation is the starting point for that relationship with your customer, it is one of the most natural ways of building a relationship. The increased use of social media by consumers over the past few years paved the way for a logical shift  that brings a value add to the customer conversation and relationship. Social media conversation allows you the opportunity to reach more customers faster and more affordably than ever before. A conversation with one customer on your Facebook page will in all probability respond to similar questions from many customers therefore you are not conversing with one customer, you are problem solving or providing valuable information that may be the deciding factor in your company being a trusted brand to many potential and existing customers.

A recent article by sellingpower.com states; “A prospect turns into a lead when you start a real conversation with them, great conversation is two-way. The best conversation is an exchange of ideas that benefits both parties. A great sales leader, Gerhard Gschwandtner put it this way: “Ditch the pitch. Co-create with the customer. Make them part of your value chain.”

Brand loyalty is built on trust, trust is established through conversation, and online conversations utilising social media channels such as Facebook creates an immediate opportunity for customer engagement. Responding to consumers in a timely manner on social media demonstrates that you are open and an accessible.

Remi Carlioz, senior head of digital at PUMA, is blunt and to the point in his article on Digiday, “It is undoubtedly necessary to find and engage with people where they digitally reside, rather than relentlessly, always trying to usher them back to a brand’s owned platform. Brands are too self-centered and must boldly act on the desire that the consumer possesses; the desire to transparently experience and interact with a brand online.”

By Gail Worthington-Eyre

 

The Power of Branding on the internet

The importance of talking to grow and strengthen brand has always been acknowledged as the most powerful component of any successful branding campaign. Over the past few years the internet and ipad, smartphones and the apps developed to extend their value have catapulted the power of branding into the hands of anyone with a digital connection. Just look at the internet Marketing businesses popping up in the hundreds and thousands daily around the world. 

Word of mouth has now emerged to be even more powerful given a single persons word has the power to reach the farthest corners of the globe in a matter of just seconds. Big brands have cleverly used this to their advantage to get a head start on the vast majority of businesses around the globe. 

It is time for all businesses product or service based to be looking seriously at how they are going to ride the wave:

Extracts from - Allen Adamson book, 50 tips from Brands that lead 

• Word of mouth will happen with or without you. Use it to learn what you’re doing right. Use it to learn how you can improve the brand experience.

• Short jokes are easier to tell than long ones. Consumers can only tell your brand story the way you want it told if you’ve sharply defined it for them.

• Always remember that when something impacts a consumer’s life on a personal level they’re more likely to share it.

• For people to want to pass along a brand experience it must be extraordinary. Make sure you give them something to talk about.

• Make it easy for consumers to share your brand story with others. Give them a platform or forum to pass along their input.

• Consumers like to be recognized and thanked for their loyalty. Acknowledge consumers who have something nice to say about your brand. Reward their support.

• Consumers vote with their wallets. Treat your brand’s advocates like the shareholders they are.

By Gail Worthington-Eyre

Social Media = Customer Service

Social Media = Customer Service

Late in 2012 over 100 social media statistics were released. As this exciting platform grows in use across all industries and as an add on to previous discussions on how the aged care Industry can leverage social media to connect with the consumer and grow brand loyalty I have extracted just a few of the over 100 statistics that were revealed. It is clear that social media = customer service and the challenge moving forward is to take the relevant data that exists and develop a strategy for how that fits within the industry.

Below are just 7 of the top 15 positive and negative statistics that were revealed along with a few extra interesting stats.

Social media accounts for only 16% of customer engagement today, but is expected to increase to 57%—the second-most used channel, behind only face to face interaction—within five years. (Marketing Pilgrim)

I hope you like the info and would be interested in your thoughts.

Seven Positive Social Media Statistics for 2012

1. 91% of online adults use social media regularly
2. 9/10 mobile searches lead to action (over half lead to purchase)
3. 54% of active social networkers follow a brand
4. 61% of global internet users research products online
5. Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors
6. 77% of B2C companies have acquired customers from Facebook
7. 83% of people who complained on Twitter loved the response from those
companies that did make the effort

Seven Negative Social Media Statistics For 2012

1. 25% of small to medium sized businesses have no strategy and only 28% measure their ROI
of social media activity
2. 83% of socially savvy consumers have walked away from a purchase in the past year after a
negative customer service experience
3. 56% of customer tweets to companies are being ignored
4. On average companies only respond to 30% of social media fans’ feedback
5. 70% of brands ignore complaints on Twitter
6. 55% of companies ignore all customer feedback on Twitter and Facebook, largely because
they have no process in place to respond
7. Only 44% of customers are answered within the first 24 hours

60% of people who use three or more digital means of research for product purchases learned about a specific brand or retailer from a social networking site. 48% of these consumers responded to a retailer’s offer posted on Facebook or Twitter. (MediaPost)

Social media and blogs reach 80% of all U.S. Internet users. 91% of experienced social marketers see improved website traffic due to social media and 79% are generating more quality leads. (Business2Community)

Is this information useful to your organisation?

Thank You