Bloemfontein – 21 May 2009 – WOMF, Word of Mouth Forum, was the brain child of Roy Hawker from New Zealand and was launched in March 2007 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Initially there was a lot of scepticism in the beginning of the bandwidth capability in this part of South Africa, but soon we’ve realised it was the right thing at the right time.

The community of central South Africa had a need to express themselves and helped other users by recommending products, places and give advice about certain topics. In just over two years, an online community of 13 000 users and 100 000 postings were created. By getting a 100 000 placings in just over two years, is a great example of the support WOMF got in the local market and how the of social media trends like blogging is expanding in this part of the world.

WOMF has now expanded to markets all over the world, with sites in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, and the United States.

Servaas de Kock, OFM’s Digital Platform Manager, had the following response to this achievement. “We know social media is taking off and it was long overdue to create a platform like WOMF for the community to take part in different conversations. The slogan of WOMF is so true, give a little, get a lot, and that’s exactly what’s happening online. After two years, WOMF is still growing, this is due to the fact that users and businesses are supporting the forum and use it on a daily basis.”