Social Media is changing the ways we communicate, consume, collaborate and create content. It is important for businesses such as Aged Care Service Providers to understand how to use it to reach and influence consumers for example, the Baby Boomer market segment. The nature of social media is to ‘pull’ by attracting consumers but it is important that they are drawn towards something of interest to them. The key is connecting with consumers in a way to ‘softy sell’ the message ensuring that it is perceived as both non-intrusive and of interest.
Photo by mentatdgt on Pexels.com
The key to ensure that the message spreads is mastering social media. One way is using stories as part of a different approach to marketing. This is more effective because it is personal and more trustworthy, it can also be easily remembered. For example, Dove’s ads as part of telling their story of its brand was a success for many reasons. It focused on real people and told a compelling story of a father wishing to see his son. It stirred up emotions which it linked to the healing and reuniting power of soap.
Check it out here: https://youtu.be/47WWytrYtDw
Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com on Pexels.com
Storytelling is using authentic, emotional stories to drive growth and foster customer loyalty. It can be delivered across multiple channels. The objectives of storytelling include:
• Raising brand awareness
• Changing consumer perception
Consumers are now engaging with media that offers high-quality, informative and entertaining content experiences. Aged Care Service Providers need to figure out how to tell their brand story well and ensuring the content is powerful to make an impact to the targeted segment. As this has the power to increase the value of their business’s service by over 20 times, make their brand significant and potential to boost revenues.
Service Providers who choose to tell their story through social media must ensure that:
• the story is relevant to the targeted market segment
• the brand message is integral to the story, so that people cannot tell the story without the message
A well-done story will:
• have a clear establishment of what the brand is about – thus purpose, core values and mission
• Offer the consumer more than a product or service but an experience that transcends mundane reality
• Motivate the consumer to step into the experience through crafting of the content
• Boost your lead generation
Reference
https://locowise.com
https://filteredmedia.com.au
https://marketinginsidergroup.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-hurn/stuffed-giraffe-shows-wha b 1524038.html
Aleti, T., Harrigan, P., Cheong, M., & Turner, W. (2016). An investigation of how the Australian brewing industry influence consumers on Twitter. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 20, Research Article.
scholarsmarketingchannel 
Hi Euphemia,
Really enjoy reading your blog.
As your description, softy storytelling can connect the emotion with the audience. Sometimes, we are moved because we experience.
A strong brand evokes resonance among consumers by delivering the brand essence.
What do you think the impact of storytelling, will it boost the revenue for the brand?
Thanks
Elva
LikeLike
Hi Elva,
Thanks for commenting. The impact of Storytelling for Service Providers will allow for brand awareness. This will allow for customer engagement by bringing their loved ones to be cared by that Service Provider because of how they have told their story. The
Service Provider can have 100% occupancy which will boost revenue.
LikeLike
I think the content focus ads will be the new trend. Compare with the typical ads, those ads with interesting story and content are more popular and get higher CVR.
LikeLike
Hi Freaky,
Totally agree with you and thanks for commenting. Content focus ads are the go and Aged Care Service Providers can capitalise on this as part of telling their story to prospective customers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Euphemia,
I agree with you about the conditions of a suitable storytelling campaign. And I also want to add some ideas. Firstly, I think the providers can use the storytelling campaign to win the trust of the target segment. And then, to build an emotional connection between the brand and the customers. Therefore, the customers can be engaged in the story and the brand.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Serena,
Thank you for your comment. I agree with you that they need to win the trust and this can be achieved with storytelling and this will lead to engaging with the brand. I think trust is a key for Aged Care Service Providers as they are providing service to vulnerable customers.
LikeLike
Hello Euphemia,
I really enjoyed reading this blog!
To be honest, I hadn’t given much consideration to this topic and appreciate now having greater insight; which has produced increased awareness about how I look at Social Media and how advertising messages connect to whom as it pertains to age. For me, I feel very connected to something through personalized story telling (who knew I was being “manipulated” in such a positive way – brand power!). I would love to see (link to watch) examples of marketing messages you feel have actively geared their products and message towards aged care.
Thank you again for sharing and I look forward to reading more!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Christine,
Thank you for your comment and insight. It is amazing how storytelling can have a powerful way to influence your decision and connect with you on a personal level. Unfortunately with this industry, they have not yet engaged with Storytelling for their brand awareness as part of their Social Media Marketing Strategy. This is the reason for my blog that Aged Care Service Providers need to adopt this strategy as it is beneficial for them. Also it makes service providers more accountable to ensure they are delivering on what they are saying in the story. There is an article by KPMG (Australia) highlighting why aged care providers should care about social media. I have looked for examples but l cannot find but l will keep trying and send you a link to watch.
LikeLike
Hi Euphemia,
Lovely blog! I agree that story telling is really meaningful and it takes an important part, especially for Aged Care Service Providers. There are so many touching stories that they can share in order to catch the emotions and sympathy from their audience. I do have a question: Is story telling enough, or do you think these providers can use the help of some influencers also?
Linh
LikeLike
Hi Linh,
Thank you for comment. Providers can use influencers like family members of the consumer.
LikeLike
Hi! Thanks for your insight about storytelling. I agree that storytelling has many benefits such as help raising brand awareness or changing customer perception.
However, I still concern about the benefit of storytelling for aged care service providers. Your article gives me an idea about the benefit of storytelling and how to use it effectively but It does not highlight the reason why storytelling is suitable for aged care service. Is this because of target consumers or the specific characteristics of aged care service? Could you please share more about it? Thanks! 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you for your comment. To answer your question, it is actually both target consumers and the specific characteristics the aged care service provider is offering. It is a shame not many aged care service providers are engaging in this type of social media because l was hoping to share videos. I hope these providers can tap into this platform. So imagine, a video of a staff member telling a story about the characteristics of the service provider with a consumer also sharing their experience of how good these characteristics are for them.
LikeLike
good points that the best way to make the content go viral is mastering Social media. Sometimes people were controlled by the information on social media. The best way to fight back is to mastering social media by telling the story or anything make readers interactive.
LikeLike
That’s a great piece! As you said, storytelling is effective because it can make a marketing communication effort more trustworthy, memorable, and relatable. What I also think is that storytelling makes a brand feel more ‘personal’. People often perceive brands as relationship partners, and exchanging stories is an important part of any relationship.
Here’s a link to an article by Susan Fournier, which digs deeper into how brands create relationships with their customers https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057740812000277
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for your comment and good article. That is why, l think Aged Care Providers can use storytelling because of all the benefits and effectiveness. A good social media marketing strategy
LikeLike