Tattle Tales and Relationships
Stakeholder Relationship Team shows what's important to them!
I remember as a kid there always seemed to be someone on my block who would always tell my mother or father what I did or did not do. That individual was called a tattle tale. Tattle taling is passing information through “word of mouth.” The saying goes that a person will tell at least 10 other people about a good or bad experience they had with a company, organization or an individual. And more often than not, those 10 people may tell at least 10 other people. I know I have experienced both giving and receiving that type of information.
Think for a moment about “word of mouth” or WOM. The simple act of conversing with another is a powerful way to spread a message.
The June 23, 2010 edition of The Agitator discussed how WOM is a powerful way for non-profits to spread their message and build relationships.
Here’s a report from Online Media Daily on an interesting Yahoo study that has attempted to drill into WOM behavior. It notes that 76% of all WOM still occurs face-to-face … however, increasingly it just might be that two individuals are sitting side-by-side talking about something they are viewing on their respective smartphones! The study says that 38% of all WOM conversations, however they occur, are informed by internet-derived content.
No one’s really examined WOM specifically as it works in the nonprofit space, but there’s no reason to expect the underlying principles would differ. In our own DonorTrends surveys, we’ve seen that 15-20% of donors self-identify themselves as individuals who have recommended a specific charity or cause group to someone else.
In building relationships we know that personal contact is the best way to increase the depth of the relationship. In today’s world of social media, i-phones, i-pads, email and yes, the old standby face-to-face conversations, their are unlimited opportunities to talk about experiences, causes, ideas and really almost anything.
How do we utilize our WOM opportunities to connect with people we know, meet with, talk on the phone with, Facebook with, are LinkedIn with to spread our Metro United Way message? In this past week there were at least two opportunities to WOM with others about helping others. First is the opportunity to Adopt Camp Kindergarten Schools and the second is the need for Volunteers to Drive Cancer Patients to Treatments. What wonderful opportunities to use the power of WOM.
What is the power of WOM. I think the power of WOM is best described by doing the math. We can use the earleir reference about one person telling 10 other people about an experience, idea, opportunity to calculate the power of WOM.
I tell 10 people about opportunities to adopt Camp Kindergarten classrooms and the need for volunteers to drive cancer patients. If those 10 people will tell 10 other people, we now have 111 people WOMing about these opportunities. If the last 10 we WOM with tell another 10 we are up to 211 WOMers. This is the power of WOM and the power of 10.
As Metro United Way works to forge lasting relationships with our stakeholders, let’s use the simple act of WOMing to Change People’s Lives. Give, Advocate, Volunteer! Be a WOMer today!
